Two Beds and a Coffee Machine
by Sannikex
Summary: AU. 10 years ago Hermione married Victor Krum. For ten years he has abused her and kept her away from the wizarding world but now she has escaped. And who does she run to? Ronald Weasley. Will Hermione learn to love again? And will Ron be able to wait?
1. Chapter 1

Two Beds and a Coffee Machine

By

Sannikex

_To__ Louise_

Because you are you and that is all we could ever ask for. Happy Birthday!

A/N: A new story! Wee! As usual I don't own a thing except for the plot bunny, which I have kept, nicely locked up in my head til now. I started this story a looong time ago, pre-HBP so I guess it's AU. This story was inspired by the song Two Beds and a Coffee Machine by Savage Garden and I used the name as working title and now it got to stick since it has been the title for so long. Not beta-ed but I hope y'all will enjoy anyway!

**Chapter One**

_S__he takes another step  
Slowly she opens the door  
Check that he is sleeping  
Pick up all the broken glass  
And furniture on the floor  
Been up half the night screaming  
Now its time to get away  
Pack up the kids in the car  
Another bruise to try and hide  
Another alibi to write_

_/Savage Garden/  
_

She didn't cry any more. She had shed so many tears over her fate. How it had become hers, smart and bossy Hermione Granger the star student of Hogwarts, Prefect and Head Girl, would without a doubt puzzle everyone who'd known her. Those who had known her. Who would recognize her now? Kneeling on the floor, bruised and disillusioned with shattered furniture and glass around her.

He had come home drunk again.

At the age of twenty Hermione Granger had married Viktor Krum, the celebrated Quidditch star.

She rose from the floor, grinding her teeth as the pain from various bruises hit her.

She had been smart, yes, but oh, so naïve. She had been blind in the beginning of her marriage. As a researcher she should have known, known that Bulgarian magicians had another view of marriage. But she hadn't known. She didn't notice her husband's growing irritation. When he suggested that she should stop working she had laughed at him. When he had argued with her how a wife should behave she had yelled back. But she had shrugged it all off as simple brawls.

The tension had grown stronger.

Viktor's career had started to go downwards and so did his temper. The first time he had hit her was after his team had lost to the Chudley Cannons. Shaken and upset she had started to pack her bags. But he had stopped her, begging her to forgive him, he hadn't realized what he was doing and it would never happen again. Then the years had passed and Vanessa had been born while Hermione had persuaded herself to think that she loved Viktor, whose career continued to go downwards. And then when she was pregnant with Henry he had been fired from the team. He had beaten her so she couldn't walk for two days. It was a wonder Henry'd survived. He had since long forbidden her to call her friends. And the masquerade carried on as they together played the forever-happy couple.

She hadn't heard from her friends in ten years. Of course they had been worried at first but she had told them that everything was fine, she just wanted to be with her family…Their letters had stopped coming. She didn't know anything about their lives except for what she had read in the paper. Harry Potter marries Luna Lovegood, The Daily Prophet knows it all! Ronald Weasley lets down top job and stays with the Cannons. That day she had cried. She didn't know them any more. Then she hadn't been allowed the wizard paper anymore. Viktor couldn't stand the shame of being fired from his team so they had moved to the Muggle side. She was far away from the world she had loved in this neat suburb of London, stuffed away in an inconspicuous terraced house. She couldn't escape. She had no one to escape to. Her old friends had forgotten her long ago. She couldn't appear on their doorstep with three children in tow. Sure, they would let her in for old times' sake but she wasn't the Hermione Granger they had known and loved; she was an empty shell, a shadow of that woman.

But she couldn't live on like this either. For eleven years she had put up with it but Viktor had effectively stomped of all the shreds of her heart and had unscrupulously burned her dreams and buried her personality until she was his faithful and pleasant _wife_. His slave. She had watched him become a wreck from alcohol. He used it to forget that he once was a celebrated star and now – nothing.

"Let me out", she whispered but no one answered.

----------

With a sigh of relief he sunk down in his favorite chair that his sister called the Bachelor Throne. She had a point, he thought and used his teeth to open the butterbeer bottle. He was thirty-one and still single to his mother's despair. Even Harry who mostly avoided touching the subject since he knew his friend was uncomfortable with it had carefully asked if it wasn't time to forget and move on. All around him there were nieces and nephews and marital happiness. Even Ginny was happy and she had married _Malfoy_. That was still a sore point and he couldn't do anything about it, Malfoy was after all the only man who could make his sister happy. Ginny was too good for the bastard. The thing was that was about the only thing he and Malfoy agreed on and that made it really hard to hate him. But he could torture him. The sad thing was that Malfoy always held the ace since he just needed to mention that he was the father of Ginny's children to make him have to run to the closest loo. Eww. He shook his head to make the uncomfortable thought to go away and took a gulp of beer. He didn't need to date right now; after all he wasn't in a hurry. Besides, John at the office had mentioned an extra ticket to the Bournemouth Bees' game tonight.

----------

She had been close once. She'd had the children with her in the groceriesstore; she'd had the car keys and some money. The automatic doors had opened and closed with a wheezing sound and the sun had been shining outside. But she hadn't dared. Viktor had her wand and his own and she just had a car. She had turned and continued deeper into the winding labyrinth of shelves feeling like she left a part of herself out on the warm car park.

But she couldn't live on like this. No way. She wouldn't let her children grow up together with _him_.

Hermione rose silently and walked towards the bedroom door, careful to not step on the shreds of glass. She peeked in but it really wasn't necessary, his snores echoed out in the hall. He hadn't made it to the bed, he was lying flat on his back on the floor, his mouth was open and he was snoring loudly. She closed the door and cursed inwardly that she didn't know where he hid the wands. She crept down the hallway feeling worthless; she was like a thief in her own house. Hermione opened the next door and the sight of her daughter sitting up in her bed, head bent and hands in front of her face, met her.

"Vanessa", she walked closer and sat down on the bed. Vanessa didn't look up but she lowered her hands and Hermione could see traces of tears on her cheeks and wet stains on the sleeves of the flannel pajamas where purple hippos grinned dumbly.

"He did it again, didn't he, he hit you." Hermione opened her mouth to lie and say that she had fallen but nothing came out. Vanessa was nine and smart, she had understood long ago.

"Yes." Vanessa looked up sharply and Hermione smiled sadly. "But this was the last time. We're leaving. Come on, hurry. We get the boys and take the car." She fastened Vanessa's long, dark, sleek hair, so unlike her own, behind her ears and rose.

"But where?"

"Anywhere"

She winced when she turned her head to check that Henry and Rorie were properly seated in the backseat but clenched her teeth and backed out from the driveway. As if on given cue she saw the curtains in the house next to theirs move. Her neighbors didn't like disturbances of the night peace. She could only pray that they wouldn't call to complain and wake Viktor.

"Mum, where are we going?" Henry asked from the backseat and she glanced at him in the rear-view. Almost six with eyes like hers and bushy eyebrows often wrinkled in wonder as he contemplated life around him. His hair was messy and his pajamas wrinkled as she had gotten him straight out of bed and into the car.

"It's a surprise, honey. But it's far away. Go to sleep." For once this wasn't followed by a dozen whys. Rorie, her baby, was already asleep. He was only one year old and accepted most things contently calm. Her children were the three things she could thank Viktor for.

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	2. Chapter 2

Two Beds and a Coffee Machine

By

Sannikex

_To__ Louise_

Because you are you and that is all we could ever ask for. Happy Birthday!

**Chapter Two**

_Another ditch in the road  
You keep moving  
Another stop sign  
You keep moving on  
And the years go by so fast  
Wonder how I ever made it through_

_/Savage Garden/_

"T'was a hell of a bruise, M'am, you've been into a fight?" The young shopkeeper laughed at his own joke and Hermione pressed a smile.

"I was clumsy, fell in a stair…" She let the smile turn a bit embarrassed, after ten years she knew just which buttons to press to not wake suspicions. The man bought it just like everyone else had.

"You gotta be careful, M'am. Was that all?"

"Yes, thank you"

"Long trip?" Hermione almost ignored it, they had to go and get away quickly, it was already dawn and they had still a long way to go. But that would make him remember the snarky, bushy-haired woman with her quiet daughter and bruises.

"Yeah, we're going to…" She paused and searched her brain for a place close to Edinburgh but gave up. She could say, there was nothing suspicious about going to Edinburgh and it would take Viktor some time to follow their tracks to this gas stop. "…Edinburgh. Family."

"Ah, nice place…Escaping the traffic?" he nodded towards the clock which pointed at 05: 30.

"Yeah. Don't wanna be late to your mother in law," Hermione smiled and the man nodded wisely behind the counter.

"I can see that…Won't keep you then, have a nice trip!" He blinked and turned up the sound on the small TV on the counter. Hermione almost ran out and she and Vanessa climbed into the car with all their purchases. They were still five and a half hours away from Edinburgh, the closest safe wizarding city. There were of course closer but Viktor would check them first. She sighed, he held all the aces, in just few minutes he could track the way it had taken them two hours of driving but she couldn't give up. Not now, not this time, not again. She had left a note about going shopping with the kids and depending on when he woke up it might delay him one or two hours.

"Mum, I have to pee!"

"I know honey, but we're almost there now."

"But I need to pee now!"

"You'll have to wait and that's final!" After eight hours in the car they were all tired and irritated, even Rorie had started to whimper. Hermione had hovered between hope and despair all the way and her hands were shaking when she drove into Edinburgh. If she remembered correctly the entrance to the wizard community was in an old house at King Stable's Road. She did remember correctly, she found the house and got the children out, still in their pajamas and went into the house as curious pedestrians followed them with their eyes. But most people just kept walking not noticing the woman with her three strangely clad children. She found the old lift and they pressed themselves in and Hermione pushed the buttons 6-2-4-4-2. The lift suddenly widened and fit them all easily and the doors opened and they stepped out in the Scottish department of MoM. Vanessa and Henry stood openmouthed but Hermione pushed them towards the numerous fireplaces. She kneeled in front of one of them marked Information and leaned in. She heard Vanessa, with Rorie on her arm, gasp and Henry sputter. They had been to small to recall that once they had had a floo connection in their own house.

She found herself looking at a witch with immaculate robes and stern eyes.

"Uhm…I would like to know Mr. Harry Potter's address, please."

The woman looked down in a thick book and tapped her wand on it. The pages turned themselves and then stopped abruptly.

"Mr. Potter has a secured address, as he has right to. He is after all a celebrity." The witch looked bored, like she had gotten Hermione's question far too many times from far too many people, which, Hermione realized, she probably had.

"Oh… Ronald Weasley then?"

"Mr. Weasley is also a celebrity and…" Hermione interrupted her,

"Could you please check?" The woman pursed her lips and looked very much like Professor McGonagall but tapped her wand on the book and scanned the page.

"Goblin Road 6, London." The woman said and looked very offended.

"Thank you!" Hermione backed hurriedly and took her head out of the fire.

"Come on kids, I know where we are going. Dumbfounded they followed, staring at their mum and the fire unable to comprehend what just had happened. Hermione picked a free fireplace, took powder from the mantle, threw it in the fire, took Rorie from Vanessa and pushed them into the fire and finally, followed herself.

"Goblin Road 6!"

--------

It had been one hell of a night. The Bees had won and his head told him that he had celebrated it thoroughly. He pushed himself off the bed, not too bad he thought, a gulp of water and breakfast and he would be as good as new. Almost.

He had just finished his breakfast and put his plate in the steadily growing pile of dishes when he heard the knock. It was probably Harry, he thought as he went for the door. Maybe he had escaped his work and wanted a cold beer or just some guy company. He opened and noted that it wasn't Harry. It was a woman with a child in her arms and two more stood shyly behind her. It was something familiar all of them, he recognized them…He looked up at the woman and she met his eyes. Suddenly it dawned on him who it was on his doorstep.

"Hermione!"

----------

Hermione almost dropped Rorie when he opened. He was wearing a pair of boxers and socks and nothing more. He looked so different from when she had seen him. The tall and gangly boy she had known had been replaced with a towering, broad-shouldered and muscular man. He had opened with a smile that slowly faded into a blank face. He doesn't recognize me she panicked and saw him furrow his brow as his blue eyes slid over the children. Then he turned them towards her and she saw them widen.

"Hermione!"

He had put on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt with the Chudley Cannons logo. She didn't know whether to be thankful or disappointed as she watched him walk around in the kitchen. Vanessa and Henry had taken Rorie and left to wash up and change out of their pajamas.

"So, Hermione…You haven't answered our letters for years and you weren't here when we've needed you, you never visit…What are you doing here?"

-----------

He was confused. He hated being confused. So he asked her straightforwardly what she was doing here. To his utter fright she started crying. She bent her head and sobs shook her shoulders.

"I…I chouldn…chouldn't..I wahanted to but I…" He could only stare as she cried. He had only heard one other person cry as Hermione was now and that was Harry. Deep sobs that wracked the body. That was the sound of despair.

"Dad hits her." A cool voice spoke from the door. Vanessa stood with her long hair wet and tangled and dark eyes fastened on her mum.

"What?" Vanessa looked frightened as the nice man suddenly seemed to grow. His eyes became darker and he straightened. She didn't think she had ever heard such disbelief in anyone's voice before.

"Hermione is this true? Hermione!" But Hermione could only sob.

"She has bruises all over. But she hides them with make-up." Ron rounded the kitchen table and forced her hands away from her face. She looked away but the smudged make-up and sharp sunlight made Vanessa's words very clear. Ron felt his legs give in.

"Oh, sweet Merlin that son of a bitch. The fucking bastard. That…" He remembered the girl's presence and clenched his teeth. "Why didn't you tell us, Hermione?" Vanessa answered in her mother's place once again.

"He has her wand." Ron had to bite his lip until it drew blood. That…That...He couldn't find any words foul enough for Viktor Krum even among the twins' more obscene expressions as he struggled to keep his anger under control. He had hurt Hermione; he'd taken away her defense…

He would deal with that later, he would hunt the bastard to hell but first he had other things to take care of.

"So come on, Hermione." He lifted her from the chair and felt how light she was; she had to be just skin and bones. He didn't think he had felt such anger ever, in his whole life as when he cradled the sobbing Hermione to his chest.

"Take care of your brothers, find something to eat." He instructed the girl who nodded and made him wonder what her dark eyes had seen.

He went up the stairs to his bedroom and put the still crying Hermione on his bed. He straightened and ran his hand through his hair.

"You should get some sleep…I…I'll…"

She had curled up on her side and turned her face away from him but he heard her whisper something.

"Pardon?" He had to lean closer to hear it but the meaning was clear.

"Stay", she whispered, still with her face hidden. He didn't know what to say, she had rendered him totally speechless and lots of reasons to why he shouldn't ran through his head but not a single one wanted to stay long enough to make sense. So he lay down on his bed with her in his arms. He didn't know for how long he stayed with her but she fell asleep. Having her close again made him realize that his feelings for Hermione had not died nor faded as he had thought yesterday.

"That makes twenty years. I've loved you for twenty years. That's two thirds of my whole life. But you never knew that did you? I never told you. How I wish I did. How I wish I'd said something when you hooked up with Vicky fucking Krum. But I didn't. Why would you choose me, I thought, a poor guy who dreamed about Quidditch but never was quite enough instead of a famous, celebrated, filthily rich Quidditch star who had loved you and worshipped you since the first time he saw you? Now I know why you should have. But who would've you chosen, Hermione?" He looked down at her sleeping features, saw the pale skin and dark bruises and felt very empty.

----------

Like it?


	3. Chapter 3

Two Beds and a Coffee Machine

By

Sannikex

_To__ Louise_

Because you are you and that is all we could ever ask for. Happy Birthday!

A/N: Hiya! I'm so glad you liked the beginning and as a special treat for all who reviewed so nicely I'm posting two more chapters!

**Chapter Three**

_And there are children to think of  
Babys asleep in the back seat  
Wonder how they__'ll ever make it  
Through this living nightmare  
But the mind is an amazing thing  
_

When she woke up the sun was setting and the house was quiet. _The kids_, was her first thought and then she saw the tray. A note with what she with a smile recognized as Ron's scrawl, how many of his hopeless essays hadn't she corrected, told her that they had gone to the Burrow and that she could follow if she felt up to it. But the thought of facing everyone and see their pitying faces…She felt sick at the thought. Instead she ate of the food he had left for her. She guessed that he had cooked it since it was just scrambled eggs and toast but it was good, she was impressed. She herself hadn't been much of a cook to Viktor's disappointment. In the beginning he had thought it was cute to have a wife who was hopeless in the kitchen but then he had urged her to learn. He couldn't accept that she was and would always be mediocre at her best and his angry eyes had made her even more nervous and clumsy and half of her dinners were too this and too that.

When she'd finished she took a shower and stood with her dirty clothes from the day before in her hand and then decided against it. Ron couldn't mind terribly if she borrowed a pair of trousers and a sweatshirt from him could he? But what if he got mad? Then she shook her head, Ron wasn't like that. Sure, he got mad but he was truly mad and he let everyone around him know it and he didn't hide it and take it out on someone innocent. And, she knew, he would never hit anyone weaker than him. So she opened his wardrobe and had to smile at the mess in there. She dug out a bright orange sweater (the Chudleys of course) and a pair of jogging trousers. Then she braided her hair neatly, as Viktor had wanted it, a habit that would take her long to overcome. She took the tray and went down with it. The kitchen was in chaos she noted now but other than that it was a very nice room, bright and with a big table. But he lived alone; it was a way too big table for just one person. He was single, well at least she thought so, she certainly hoped that he didn't have a girlfriend, Ron wouldn't understand why the girlfriend would mind that Hermione lived in his house, he had always been terrible at understanding girls.

She put down the tray and started with the dishes. She might not have been any chef but she was really good at cleaning up. That took planning and organization and that she was really good at so their house had always been spotlessly clean. It didn't take her long to finish and she took a round in the house to see what more there was to do. She noted that a woman must have helped him with the interiors, they were really nice and pictures and paintings (mostly by nephews and nieces) hung on the walls. She found a picture of herself together with Harry and Ron on the mantle. It was before their seventh year she guessed because Harry looked happy, or, as happy as he could ever be with the weight that he had on his narrow shoulders. It was taken on the entrance stairs of Hogwarts and they were wearing their school-robes. She stood between the boys with her arms around their middles and they had theirs around her shoulders. They were all laughing. Gently she wiped off the dust and then she started to clean up. After all, she thought, it was the least she could do after Ron hade been so sweet to her.

She was almost finished when the door clicked. She looked around and noted that everything looked immaculate.

"Already home? Did all your boisterous brothers scare my children?" With a smile she looked up at the doorway. Her smile died as Victor's bloodshot eyes met hers.

--------

"Harry, I need to talk to you. Alone." He leaned forward and saw the face he knew as well as his own grow serious. Harry nodded and mouthed 'outside' as his youngest daughter climbed his lap with an incredibly exciting story about Freddie Calhoun's front teeth.

He settled comfortably in one of the worn chairs on the little veranda. The night was warm and the moon yellow. Almost full he noted and sent a thought to Lupin who was inside discussing the latest at the Ministry with Arthur. Quietly the door opened and Harry sat down beside him.

"So?" Ron rose, he couldn't be still.

"Hermione didn't come back to visit." Harry wrinkled his forehead.

"But you said..."

"I know what I said!" He had appeared at the family dinner with three children telling everyone that Hermione had come back for a visit but she hadn't been feeling well and would appear later during the week but her children came instead. They had been treated like royalties since they stepped in.

Harry took no offense in Ron's angry voice; he knew his friend. Ron started pacing and then turned on his heel.

"I discovered today that I'm still in love with Hermione." Harry weighed his words carefully,

"Are you sure it wasn't just because you were happy to see her again?"

"No. No at first it was but then I...Harry that bastard hit her!" Harry straightened up. "She came to me with her children and I...I asked her what she was doing here, just turning up after ten years and she started crying. Hermione cried, Harry. And her daughter comes down and calmly tells me that 'dad hits her' and... I don't think I've ever been so furious in my whole life as when she continued and said that he had taken her wand. She's been living in the Muggleworld without her wand and with no way to contact anyone and we've been sitting here angry with her because she kept pushing us away. I can barely stand the thought of what she's been through while I've been hating her for never contacting us..." Harry sat silent completely dumbstruck while his friend's words kept coming. The thought was so strange, Hermione was strong, she would never let anyone treat her like that...

"And then when I held her I felt that I've never stopped loving her...I'm really pathetic ain't I? I can't stop thinking that if I'd told her maybe...maybe she'd have chosen me. Then this never would have happened...We would have been happy, sure we would've argued but we'd been happy. I wouldn't be living alone, she wouldn't be broken and those children would have been mine..." Ron looked down and met his friend's eyes. The rage he felt himself was clearly visible through the round glasses and he realized why there were people who feared Harry Potter.

"I want to meet her first, Ron. Then we'll hunt him to hell." Ron nodded.

"Go make your excuses, I'll go home and tell Hermione you're coming." With a pop he disappeared.

"It _is_ pathetic, Ron...Twenty years before you can even _think_ about admitting to Hermione you love her..." He shook his head and went back in. He thought about how it would feel if Luna had picked someone else over him and felt his heart speed up. He wasn't sure how he could've cooped with that. Mrs. Weasley came hurrying over and Harry saw how badly she wanted to know what he and Ron had been talking about so he spoke first to prevent questions.

"Mrs. Weasley, something's turned up. Work. I got to go. So sorry." Her face fell.

"Oh, those Ministry officials keeping you working all day long! I thought you said you were free tonight."

"Aurors are never free, Mrs. Weasley." With that he stepped out in the hall and just a moment later Luna followed him. She looked him in the eye and Harry could just feel how she saw straight through him. He opened his mouth to explain but she put her hand against his mouth.

"Tell me later", she whispered and nodded almost invisibly towards the door. He followed her direction and saw several pairs of curious eyes watching him from the living room. He nodded and gave her a chaste kiss, "Tonight" he whispered and with a pop he was gone. Luna sighed and wished she knew what it was that had upset her husband so.

"No apparating inside!" She heard Mrs. Weasley from the kitchen and went back in. It wasn't always easy being married to a first-class Auror. But there were worse things you could be married to, she mused, a Romper or a Tornado Thing, for example.


	4. Chapter 4

Two Beds and a Coffee Machine

By

Sannikex

_To__ Louise_

Because you are you and that is all we could ever ask for. Happy Birthday!

**Chapter Four**

_Another bruise to try and hide  
Another alibi to write  
Another lonely highway in the black of night  
There__'s hope in the darkness  
I know youre gonna make it  
_

Ron heard them before he saw them. He ran into the kitchen and stopped dead at the sight. A man that he could hardly recognize as Viktor Krum stood with his hand fisted in Hermione's hair, bending her head backwards and his wand pointed at her throat while shouting at her. They both stilled when he entered.

"Ron!"

If he had kept his wand at Hermione's throat Ron wouldn't have moved but he turned against Ron who was quicker and far more sober and he sent a body locking spell before Viktor opened his mouth. Hermione bit down a cry as the hair he had fisted followed when he fell. What had she done, brought Viktor to Ron's! Shyly she looked up. But he wasn't looking at her; he gripped Viktor by his shirt and lifted him like a rag doll before carelessly putting him in a chair. With controlled movements he conjured a rope and tied the stiff man to the piece of furniture.

"Ron?" He didn't answer or look up he just concentrated on the ropes. Then he straightened and she saw the fury in his eyes. He lifted the lockingspell.

"Don't believe whatever she says, this is the first time...this happens! I was worried, she ran away from home with the kids, yes, the kids! And I was worried..." his hectic speech was interrupted by Ron's fist landing on his jaw.

"Don't you dare talking about Hermione like that! You're not fit to _look_ at her, you bastard!" Viktor looked darkly at Ron.

"And you are? She chose me over you!"

"And obviously she chose wrong", came a voice from the doorway.

"Harry?" She couldn't believe it. Was that Harry Potter, the skinny boy with broken glasses and pathetically large clothes she'd known? The man in the doorway was a very handsome, very dangerous _man_. He flashed a sad smile at her and then his eyes turned to ice when they reached Viktor. For a moment she was sure that he'd kill her husband on the spot. But he didn't, he pulled a pair of handcuffs from his belt and she recognized the mark fastened on it. He was an Auror! Her eyes filled with tears when she saw the number of stars, a first-class Auror. Just like he had wanted to. Harry put the handcuffs on and put a silencing charm on Viktor with cold rage in his eyes. Ron did nothing to hide his fury and stood, shaking, in front of his former idol. Then he turned around and sunk down on the floor his blue eyes turning from furious to worried the moment they settled on her. He wasn't angry with her for dragging Viktor here.

"Are you all right, Hermione?" She opened her mouth to say yes but all that came out was a weak,

"No." He could have managed tears, anger, anything but not the quiet 'no'. He opened his arms and she took him by surprise, she scrambled up in his lap, pressing herself against him, putting her arms around his neck. He felt a prickling feeling behind his eyes. He bent his head in the nape of her neck.

"I'm so sorry, Hermione. I'm so sorry."

---------

They sat by the kitchen table, the three of them. They used to be inseparable. She knew from the gossip she'd overheard that most people had referred to them as the Trio. But the bonds that had grown strong for so long had been ripped little by little for such a long time. Though when she sat with them in silence by Ron's kitchen table Hermione thought that maybe, just maybe they could overcome the gulfs between them. It _had_ been Victor's fault, but not only. If she'd really wanted she would have found a way. But she hadn't wanted them to see her as she was then. She'd been ashamed what she had become and unconsciously taken a part of the guilt. But she didn't want to think about it. Not now. Not later. Not ever.

"So I read in the paper that you married Luna", she managed a shaky smile and tried to keep the wonder she felt out of her voice. She'd always thought it would be Ginny and Harry and she felt her heart bleeding that she hadn't been there to see why he chose Luna. Her best friend had gotten married and she hadn't been there. When she saw his grim face soften her tears were close again.

"Yeah. Best thing I've ever done." He smiled and continued, "And I met your children tonight. They seem to be great kids even with…" He stopped himself and started fresh with a nervous look her way. "Your Henry and my daughter found each other pretty quickly. Hermione felt her chin drop. Children? She'd never thought about that her friends might have children as well. And Harry, a father? She didn't doubt he was a good one but the thought was so unreal. In her mind he had always been the young man she'd left behind.

"You've got a child?" Harry nodded and smiled even wider. If Viktor had once looked at their children the way Harry looked when he thought about his she could have forgiven him for many things.

"Two. Lily and Hope, seven and five. Hope and Henry hit off immediately." She felt the tears start to run again as she smiled.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I can't seem to stop doing this! It's just; I've missed so much! I should have been there, when you got engaged, when you married, when you became a first-class Auror, when Lily was born, all her birthdays, when Hope was born and all her birthdays, all your birthdays, all Luna's! And Ron when you got promoted, when you turned twenty, when you turned thirty, when you threw a party, when you didn't clean your house. I should have been here to nag on you and...just been there." She finished lamely.

"We don't blame you, Hermione", Ron's voice sounded thick and he kept his eyes on the same spot on the wall, where he had fastened it when Harry's colleagues had fetched Viktor. Harry rose from his seat on the other side of the table and sat beside her.

"Hermione you weren't there but you and Ron were all the family I had when I went to Hogwarts. I couldn't just forget you because you weren't there so I asked to have you as godmother to Lily even without your consent. The Ministry agreed as you didn't live in the wizarding world." Her tears started to fall faster and with her best friends' arms around her she cried over the years in her life that wasn't hers.

"Here." Ron handed her a bag with ice for her bruised hand and sat down facing her. They were still in the kitchen with time ticking by towards midnight. Harry had left to take care of Viktor at the Ministry and with a final hug he'd left them to an awkward silence. "Give me your hand, I'll heal it for you." She looked up and met his eyes. His voice was hoarse and he had a shadow of red beard. He looked tired. Her hand in his was so small. He was so grown up. This Ron Weasley was so different from the short-tempered, somewhat shy teenager she'd known and yet, he was so very much still that boy she had loved. He mumbled a spell under his breath and the bruises on her hand disappeared.

"Thanks. Where did you learn healing?" She pulled her hand back from his grasp. He shrugged and started playing with his wand, shooting little red sparks over the table.

"Well, you gotta know a few when you have a Quidditch team to look after. Many injuries."

The silence stood between them like a wall again. She fiddled with her healed fingers and sent him a look. He had his light blue eyes, like a summer sky, fastened on his wand as he twirled it with long fingers. Everything had seemed too long for him when he was younger she recalled. Too long arms, nose, feet, legs. His body had been mismatched and just awkward. Now his face was...strong. He wasn't handsome, his nose was still a bit too long and it was crooked, like he had broken it sometime. His hair wasn't orange any longer, the color was deeper and it was slightly longer than he'd used to have it. It fell across his brow that was a bit creaked, like he wrinkled it when he concentrated. His skin was slightly tanned and rough, he was probably outside a lot. He had a strong jaw and she wondered if the muscle in it still tensed when he was angry. His mouth was ordinary but when he smiled, flashed that easy grin it was really hard not to smile back. All in all he was a fetching sight with his towering height and red hair.

"Ron..." He looked up and desperately she fought to not look down. "I'm sorry I brought Viktor here...I'll...I'll move as soon as I can, I don't know what I was thinking appearing on your doorstep with three children in tow, I just..."

"Hermione. Hermione, listen to me, there is nothing that could make me happier than that you turned to me when you needed help. You can stay here as long as you want with your children. Besides, I'm happy that bastard turned up here, if he hadn't I'd have to hunt him up from whatever hole he'd hid in. But now he's off to a very nice and long prison vacation and after that I hope he rots in hell!" She didn't like the viciousness in his voice. It didn't sound like Ron. She rose a bit shakily, she was so tired. She wanted to lie down and pull a cover over her head and sleep, forget and not wake up until everything was fine. But she couldn't. Three children depended on her strength.

"I have to get my children."

"I can get them for you if you want." His anger died just as quickly as it had bloomed up.

She opened her mouth to say no but the picture of the whole Weasley clan, all the questions, the fuss, the pity appeared in her mind.

"Yes. Thank you. I don't know how I can ever repay you, Ron." He smiled sadly.

"We're friends, Hermione."

-------

So, how was chapter four?


	5. Chapter 5

Two Beds and a Coffee Machine

By

Sannikex

_To__ Louise_

Because you are you and that is all we could ever ask for. Happy Birthday!

A/N: I'm glad you're enjoying this story and I hope you'll continue to do so!

**Chapter Five**

_Another ditch in the road  
Keep moving  
Another stop sign  
You keep moving on  
And the years go by so fast  
Silent fortress built to last  
Wonder how I ever made it_

She knew that he didn't expect her to do anything in return and that encouraged her to do something. He deserved being repaid in some way because he didn't expect it. He took the children to the Burrow every morning and got them back after work. He said she needed the rest and she was thankful but she wasn't used to not doing anything at all. She usually had three children at her hands and a house to run as she worried about her husband. Ex-husband, she reminded herself. She had taken off her wedding band this morning and put it in her purse. It felt weird to not have it on her finger, just a pale ring of skin that the sun hadn't reached for years. It was like the impact Viktor had left on her, he was gone but even as she shrugged him off he was there. Just the same she could take off her ring but she couldn't do anything about the pale skin under it. She had caught herself wondering when he was going to come home too drunk to control his anger. She simply couldn't seem to escape her old life.

She put the freshly ironed shirts on his bed which he had actually made before he left. Mrs. Weasley had probably nagged him when he was a boy until he did it automatically. There was a knock on the door and she stiffened, felt her muscles lock. Viktor couldn't be here. It had to be someone who wanted to sell something or ask for directions. She stood at the top of the stairs just about to descend when the door opened.

"Hermione! It's Ginny! I'm coming in!" A redheaded woman stepped in and Hermione made a strangled sound.

"Ginny?" The woman looked up and positioned herself at the bottom of the stairs.

"Hi, Hermione." Could that be Ginny? The woman in the hall was not the scrawny girl Hermione remembered. This woman was stunning with her violently red hair, even features and fit body. And, Hermione noted with a female pang of jealousy, endless legs. She was clad in black from head to toe, denim jeans, tight top, low-heeled boots and dragonhide jacket. Was it possible that Ginny was just one year younger than herself? Compared to her Hermione thought that she could easily pass as Ginny's mother. Self-consciously she pulled at the large T-shirt of Ron's she was wearing.

"Well...It's nice to see you, Ginny..." She thought that her grimace could be interpreted as a smile.

"You don't think so, really. Yet. But just you wait 'til we've shopped. Then you'll be happy to see me."

"Shopped?"

"Yep. Ron mentioned that you didn't have any clothes and that you didn't want the ones back there." How could he know? All clothes back _there_ Viktor had touched or approved of in some way. How in Merlin's beard had she been reduced so much as a human so she needed his approval of what she wore? "And Ron asked me what size I thought you were so he could pick up some things for you." Ginny sighed and rolled her eyes. "Men! Like he would know anything about clothes. He'd probably buy you giant rompers with the Chudley's logo. Well, I thought that I'd drop by and offer my services as fashion guru and girl company." She leaned on the railing and smiled with perfect teeth up at Hermione.

"But I'm ironing." Ginny didn't even blink at the lame excuse. She just shrugged her jacket off and climbed the stairs with the vigor of a teenager.

"I'll help you and we'll be finished in no time. Jeez, it's what...10 years since I ironed; thank Merlin for house-elves! Paid ones, mind you! But I still remember it." She swept past Hermione and went into the bedroom.

"Oh, sweet Lords of all Magic! Hermione what have you done in here?" She hurried in and found Ginny in the middle of the room with her arms outstretched.

"I just..."

"It's so clean I can actually _see_ the floor! You're absolutely fabulous." Hermione felt herself blush but she was genuinely happy that Ginny had noticed her effort.

"Thanks."

"I hope Ron pays _you_!" Hermione's eyes widened.

"No! No, I get to live here with the children and he's been so sweet to all of us, there's really not much. But he likes that it's clean."

"He better! Now let's get started!" They started with Ginny chatting away about sales and nice shops.

"Ginny, I don't have any money."

"Of course you do. You get money from that bastard for the rest of your life."

"I don't want his money!" Ginny's face had hardened at the mention of Viktor and with a steely hint in her brown eyes she straightened.

"I can see why, Hermione. But look at it this way, wouldn't it be nice to use it all up, leave him broke? Hmm?"

"I've spent more money on one day than food expenses for three months!" Hermione sunk down in the comfortable armchair with aching feet and a slight buzz in her head. Ginny winked at her,

"Feels good, doesn't it?" Hermione nodded and looked around. They were in a fashionable restaurant in Diagon Alley, Martha's, where you could sit in an air of calm and watch the bustling crowd out on the street or eat by elegant table with discreet waiters and the quiet tinkling of glasses and cutlery and many conversations around you. It was a luxurious restaurant but with an informal feeling to it.

Ginny flipped open a pocket mirror and freshened up her lipstick oblivious to the appreciative looks she got from the male habitants of the room.

"How do you manage to look so young?" Hermione blurted but Ginny didn't seem fazed. She blew a kiss at her reflection and snapped the mirror shut.

"I have an amazing sex life."

"Ginny!" Hermione said, feeling the heat in her face as several pairs of amused eyes turned towards them.

"Sex is important. Those who don't agree obviously aren't getting any good. And I'm happy. I wake up every morning feeling like I'm still dreaming and…" A waiter approached and interrupted discreetly.

"Your table is ready Mrs. Malfoy. This way." Hermione froze. Malfoy? As in..._Draco_ _Malfoy_? Numbly she rose after Ginny and hissed,

"Did he say Malfoy?" Instead of laughing and asking 'are you mad?' Ginny turned towards her with a baffled look.

"You mean that...Ron! Typically him to avoid painful subjects." She rolled her eyes and sat down by the prettily set table. "I'm married to Draco Malfoy, Hermione. We have four children."

"But..."

"He's really changed, you know." Hermion sunk down in the chair opposite her.

"I...But...How?" Ginny laughed.

"That's a long story!"

"Will you tell me...Everything that has happened while I wasn't here..."

"You were there, Hermione! It started at Hogwarts." As their drinks were placed in front of them Hermione tried to make it fit in her head. Had Ginny mentioned Malfoy anytime? Not more than anyone else, just complaining over what a pain he was. And later...no, she couldn't think of anytime Ginny had behaved differently to Malfoy than the others had. With laughter in her eyes the redhead said,

"In secret, of course." She sipped her Veela Vision, a very girly drink reminding of champagne. "Draco used to obsess a bit about me at Hogwarts. Nothing as serious as a crush but still, he was attracted. Mostly because it was forbidden. His subconscious probably reacted from the danger in it. A Weasley, totally off limits and against eyerything he stood for. You know how it was by then, being a teenager with all the raging hormones and clashing moods. Anyway, I noticed something about him that wasn't like it should from the beginning of my fourth year. It unnerved me. He used to look at me from the Slytherin table with this intense look, like he was confused why he looked and still couldn't bring himself to stop. A bit accusing I guess, like, what the hell are you doing to me, and very, very angry. Well, since it was Malfoy I couldn't see why he kept looking at me. He was still as nasty as ever. Then in my fifth year when he attempted to kill Dumbledore he disappeared and I didn't see him until he appeared at the Headquarters." Hermione remembered that. The night there had been a booming knock on the door from someone who did not know the password. The person had said that the Death Eaters were on their way. With the whole Order in the hall they had opened the door with every wand in the room aimed at the hooded man who stepped in. He had thrown his wand to the side and pulled back the hood, revealing pale, pointed features and tousled blonde hair.

"They're coming." Here chaos had erupted. Half of them had believed that they were coming, Malfoy had to have heard where the Headquarters was if he could show up there and the other half thought it was a trap and that Malfoy were leading the Death Eaters. Finally someone had the sense to shout,

"Shut up! Let's hear Malfoy out." Everybody had silenced and the young man had sneered.

"I came to offer what I know in favor for shelter and protection." After very long discussions the Order had accepted.

Hermione returned to the present when Ginny carried on.

"As you know he came under the protection of the Order for his extensive help. Maybe you recall where they put him?" Ginny smirked and Hermione thought back again.

"In your appartment!"

"Right!" Now Hermione recalled that since the Headquarters had moved to a place close to the Burrow the children had pretended to move out and get their own homes so the Death Eaters wouldn't be brought to the Burrow in search for them and there find the HQs. But the Weasleys hadn't lived in their flats, they had been with the Order almost around the clock, sleeping now and then on some couch or in a corner at the Headquarters. "Well, as I had to go to my flat now and then and do some domestic spells and make the impression that I lived there I was chosen to bring Draco food. Neither of us was happy with the arrangement. As you know his mother was killed the night he came to the Order and that was the major reason for switching sides. His mother was the only person he had ever cared about and Voldemort knew that. When Draco failed both killing Dumbledore and the Creevey family he was punished by watching them killing his mother." Ginny's voice had suddenly become very cold and unfeeling and Hermione could see the rage in her eyes. She knew then that if one of the Death Eaters had met Ginny Weasley, no Malfoy, who had killed Malfoy's mother their lives wouldn't be worth half a knut. Ginny had always defended those she loved Hermione knew. Like that time in Flourish and Blotts when little shy Ginny had stepped up to the two heads taller Draco Malfoy and told him to leave Harry alone.

"So he wasn't exactly his nicest self when I came around, worse than usual, in fact. By that time I felt really hopeless, we were loosing, I was not allowed to help, Mum still thought I was too young. I felt like no one cared about me all wrapped up in something they didn't allow me to be a part of. Draco and I had some pretty extrodinary fights bordering to duels as he took out his anger and sorrow on me at the worst possible time. Weeks went as you struggled in the library to find the Horcruxes and Harry and Ron were out hunting them and I watched you do it. After a particularily nasty self-pitying session I went over to the apartment and the first thing I hear when I step over the treshold makes me want to turn and leave him without food. Then I registered what he had said. He was insulting me for something I had said three weeks earlier. He had listened and remembered what I had shouted which meant he had actually heard me. As I said I was pretty down at the time and felt like no one cared, and then the person I hate most after Voldemort and his Death Eaters, was the only one who listened to me." If Hermione had been the person she'd once been she would've had objected but now having experienced the horror of being lonely in a room full of people understood how the young Ginny must have felt neglected by everyone.

"So I decided to try something new. Not an insult but telling him how I felt. Of course I shouted and made it all sound like it was his fault, I mean honestly, telling him my feelings in that way…I had to have some sort of protection from utter humiliation..." Hermione nodded. Personally she thought that telling Draco Malfoy your inner emotions was like offering your throat too a starved wolf but that was just her opinion. "Two days later he threw it back in my face, word by word plus some things I hadn't even uttered. He was always good at reading people's feelings. I guess you have to if you want your insults to really cut." She shrugged elegantly and swallowed the last of her drink. "I didn't even hear his cutting remarks. He had listened. So I kissed him." Ginny giggled and Hermione coughed on her mineral water. Ginny held up her hands. "Just a peck really, in thanks and not even on the mouth. But he made it more than that." Ginny didn't think Hermione needed the details about how she had felt pressed up against a wall with his hot mouth over hers and his hands roaming where no man had ever been close with a certainty she'd never found in any of her boyfriends. She'd also realized she didn't mind as long as he didn't stop.

"Now afterwards I see why he suddenly pulled back and told me to go to hell. He was scared of what I had awoken inside him. Feelings that had been dead and buried in the graveyard his soul was by then had risen from their graves, living and breathing. Well, that's his words." He had a way with words anyway, Hermione mused and tried to not see the look in Ginny's eyes that clearly spoke of exactly what the 'he made it more than that' statement meant.

"We didn't acknowledge it, the kiss, for two weeks, we were just civilly distant, pretending that the hunger in our hearts would fade. Silly. Everybody knows that hunger doesn't go away it just grows stronger. But something had changed in that flat, he was still as mean as ever but the conviction behind his words was weak. I guess that I gradually started to treat him more like a human being and with that a tentative truce was formed. So while literally sitting on our hands to keep them off each other we became…not friends and not acquaintances, something between. It was peculiar what happened in that flat while war was raging outside…" Ginny seemed to get lost in thought. Their starters were brought and that seemed to wake Ginny from what must have been a nice reverie as she flashed her fetching smile again.

"Well, let's start, I'm starving!" Hermione followed Ginny's example and understood why this restaurant was so popular. The food was fantastic.

"What happened?"

"Well, the war ended but he didn't move out. I asked the Order if I could have the flat as I liked it so much and I could. So I lived with him there, studying to become a Healer." Hermione felt her jaw drop. She'd been to that apartment; she'd visited Ginny, had Malfoy been there?

"But how…I never…How come we never saw him?" Ginny laughed out loudly and some other guests turned around.

"I couldn't let you see he lived there! Can you imagine Mum's face if she came to visit and found Draco Malfoy there?" Hermione could picture it, vividly. "We had some pretty impressive spell work there, warning systems and all, but even then it was close sometimes. Like when Ron found a pair of Draco's underwear in the couch. Merlin! Mum nagged me for months about when I was going to bring 'the nice man I was seeing' home and all my brothers wondered the same and balled their hands into fists. Well, I couldn't bring Draco home. I loved him, a very shocking realization the day I turned eighteen, but I didn't know if he loved me. So when they became unbearable one day I told them I was seeing David Matthews, Draco's alias, a reviewer at the Prophet."

"David Matthews as in my favourite reviewer? He's _Malfoy_?" Hermione wondered bleakly.

"I never told him that Hermione, I didn't think you'd want that." Damn right she didn't. She could just imagine his smirk if he learned she'd enjoyed his articles the most in the whole paper.

"He just needed a job and he couldn't very well go out and look for a job as Draco Malfoy, ex Death Eater so he sought one he could do from home. He still writes now and then, he needs someone to be mean to. Now that he can't insult my family or my friends any longer since they're relatives of his children." Draco Malfoy as a father…Hermione couldn't picture it at all, she'd only seen the former Slytherin treat other people with an uncaring coldness.

"So…how are your children?" Ginny lit up and Hermione recognized the look from her own face when someone showed interest in her children.

"They're great. I have a picture here, somewhere…" She started groping in her bag and dug out her wallet. "Here." With an affective look at the picture she handed it to Hermione. It was a photo of a summer's day. A man was sitting on a blanket with the remains of a picnic around him. He was surrounded by four children of different ages and it struck Hermione that the man had to be Malfoy. Once she'd connected the very handsome man with the pointy-faced git she saw the resemblance. The man was light blonde with sharp features, high, prominent cheekbones, a narrow, muscular build and magnetic, dark grey eyes. Basically he could make a woman drool from the other side of a four inches thick brick wall.

Three of the children were redheaded but the boy who seemed to be the oldest was just as light blonde as his father. All four of them were cute like a cereal commercial.

"They're very cute, Ginny. You can see who parented them." Ginny shone with pride.

"So are yours, Hermione. They're not at all like their father. They're so sweet and polite. They could teach my rascals something."

"And what does Malfoy think?" She couldn't help calling him Malfoy but Ginny didn't seem to mind. And why on earth had she asked what he thought about her children? Was she going to measure Ginny's husband after what he thought about her children?

"He likes them. They called him 'sir' and he's still proud of it." Ginny laughed.

"They did? Wow, I must've done better than I thought..."

"You've done amazing, thinking of what they've been living with." Hermione felt the tears that always seemed to be hovering in her eyelashes these days fell.

"Sir? At home they're nothing but Uncle and Aunt and Molly's told them to call her Grandma just like her other grandchildren and they're so happy..." Ginny rose from her chair and joined Hermione in hers. It was lucky it was a large, squishy, armchair. "...You've all been so nice to me. You took me out and cheered me up and Ron he's been simply great, and the children adore him. And I, I just go and take up room in his house and I wanted to pay for it and he lost his patience with me for the first time. I'm just worthless!"

"Don't, Hermione, don't accuse me of having bad taste in company! And Ron as well! I happen to know that there's nothing he'd rather want than have you there where he can protect you. When he came home and told us about you we all wanted to rush to your help but he was scary, really scary when he told us to stay back. He wants you and your children there."


	6. Chapter 6

Two Beds and a Coffee Machine

By

Sannikex

_To__ Louise_

Because you are you and that is all we could ever ask for. Happy Birthday!

A/N: First of all, thanks to all of you who reviewed! I really appreciate it :D

**Chapter Six**

_Still a little bit of your ghost your witness  
Still a little bit of your face I haven't kissed  
You step a little closer each day  
Still I can't say what's going on  
_

Ginny had followed her home and Hermione had started with dinner while contemplating Ginny's words. She was setting the table when what sounded like a small stampede rushed in.

"Mum we saw a huge snake! It was a boa contsi…conist…"

"Constrictor, Henry." Ron said from the doorway and Hermione's heart constricted. He was leaning against the doorframe with Rorie in his arms and his eyes fastened on Henry.

"Yeah, and it was huge, mum, wasn't it, Ron?" Ron nodded in solemn confirmation.

"Huge. But not too big for your mum. She and I have been wrestling with the buggers and though it hurts to admit it she is a better snake wrestler than I am." He winked at her and she couldn't help the open smile, he was so sweet with the children. Henry's eyes were round with curiosity.

"Really?"

"Of course. They're nasty but you just have to tell them who's in charge and they'll listen to you." Vanessa giggled behind her hand and the sound was like music in Hermione's ears.

"Wow", Henry breathed.

"Now, go and wash your hands, dinner's ready." The two older children went down the hall and Henry's voice came floating through the door. 'Can you believe that mum's wrestled with boa constir…contris…'. Vanessa's smiling voice answered, 'Constrictor. No, it's amazing isn't it?'

"I took them to the zoo. They've seen the Burrow to the last nail now. I hope it was okay."

"Sure it is. Ron, I'm very…grateful for all this and I hope you know it." She said and felt the bad conscience come. The children had been at the Burrow for almost every day now. She was using Mrs. Weasley's kindness, she should take care of her own children, what kind of mother was she?

He nodded and looked at her inquiringly but said nothing and soon Henry and Vanessa returned. Dinner passed with pleasant chatter and many laughs and soon it was over.

"It was really good, Hermione. Thanks." She smiled and nodded. It had been a good meal, one of her best. "Why don't you kids take Rorie and play in the garden for a moment?" Henry opened his mouth to protest but Vanessa looked between Ron and Hermione and put a hand on Henry's arm.

"Come on, let's go." With a sigh Henry slid down from the chair and Vanessa lifted Rorie. With a stern look at Ron over her shoulder she herded Henry out of the room.

"She reminds me a lot of you." Suddenly shy when she was alone with him she just nodded with her eyes fastened on the dancing flame of the closest candle. In the soft light his eyes seemed to be shining.

"How was your shopping with Ginny?" Surprised she looked up. She'd thought he'd wanted to talk about something serious, like... Molly didn't want to look after her children all day long, or something.

"It was...nice. I got to hear the whole story about her and Malfoy."

"It's quite the story isn't it?"

"Yeah. I still don't believe it. I mean he's so..." Ron smiled.

"Well, however much I hate it he has changed. He's still Malfoy and that is bad in itself but he's toned down his attitude a bit." Not used to having a perfectly normal conversation Hermione tripped over the words.

"A...And how do you feel having him in the family. I mean you don't really _like_ him..." Ron stretched his long legs and leaned back a bit in the chair.

"No, I don't and I never will but the truth is that Malfoy is the only man that can make Ginny happy. For that I won't make his life a _total_ hell."

"Hermione! I brought my kids and yours here, so we can have tea! You better hide everything private and embarrassing 'cause we're coming in!" Hermione smiled and shook her head at Ginny's call. She rose from the kitchen table where she'd been sitting looking over Ron's accountancy. Ginny entered with four children in tow. She wrinkled her nose over the scrolls filled with columns of tiny numbers.

"You do his cleaning, his cooking, his laundry _and_ his economics. Does he do anything by himself these days?"

"It's nothing, really, he's been so kind and..." Ginny waved her hands.

"He's your friend isn't he? Now, these for once silent midgets are my children. Damian, Alexander, Mary and Narcissa. Kids, this is Hermione Granger, an old friend of mine." It felt good to be called by her maiden's name again. Uninterestedly but polite the children greeted her before they were dragged off by Henry. Soon sounds of wild playing penetrated the door. Ginny sunk down in a chair.

"So, tea?" She wriggled her eyebrows.

"Fine. Tea."

"Great, then the kids can tire themselves out a bit. I don't know how many rounds of hide and seek I've played this morning. Those new clothes really suit you by the way."

"Thanks." It was easy to get lost in Ginny's chatter and Hermione enjoyed herself. To feel normal was not something she'd felt in a long time.

"Now I've talked rubbish for thirty minutes. That should do it. We need to talk about a bit more serious things." Hermione tensed immediately. "I'm sorry I have to be the one who nags you but Ron would never do anything to push you. First of all. Schooling. Home school or the one the whole clan attends. Your children can't just run around however much mum loves having children in the house at all times." Hermione let out her breath. That wasn't too bad, she'd thought just yesterday that they could not let Mrs. Weasley have all the responsibility. So she nodded.

"It's your decision, Hermione but personally I think that it would be best for your children to go to a school and meet other children." Ginny looked intently at her. Hermione thought back on when she was younger. She'd never dreamt a lot about marriage and children. More about a career. Teach the children? She felt a rush of pleasure but realized surprised that she didn't long to teach but to learn herself. She wanted to read again. Viktor had approved of having a cultivated wife, as he had once put it, a marriage is like the sun and the moon, the husband is the sun and the wife is the moon that reflects the man. The thought was ridiculous, really. Ron would never...Ron? She shook her head.

"I think you're right. The children need to come out."

"Good. That brings me to the next subject. _You_ need to come out. I understand if you don't want to meet the whole Weasley clan but why don't you bring them here, one at a time?" All instincts in Hermione screamed in protest. Not people at home. It was her worst nightmare. Cooking and dressing and please Viktor's friends, not letting them see the state of the marriage. No, smile and be polite and spiritual. Hide. With great effort she pushed herself out of the frantic train of thoughts. She was not married to Viktor any more, she did not live in his house and she never had to see him again.

"I don't think so, Ginny. I...I won't be able to treat guests right."

"You met me didn't you?"

"That's different, you..."

"Just stomped in? Yes, I did and so the rest of the family will if you don't let them see with their own eyes how you are." Hermione felt like she'd been cornered. "You're brave, Hermione. You dared to fight Voldemort. You fought him when you were just eleven. You followed your friends almost to death straight-backed without a second thought. You fled from Viktor. You were not sorted into Gryffindor for nothing. I'll make Ron invite Harry and Luna and their children. It will be fine. Ron will be here."

"Ron will be here." That seemed to turn the right key in Hermione's head. Her shoulders slumped in defeat.

"Good girl."

"You did what?" He spun around so that he faced his sister.

"Ron, she needs to come back into the world. You can't shelter her forever!"

"It's too early!"

"We both know that it's now or never, the longer we wait, the harder we'll make it for her."

"You should let me decide!" Their voices echoed in the locker room of the Chudley Cannons. It was far more luxury than when Ron first had started to train the team and led them to victory after victory until they were among the best. New sponsors had afforded better accommodations. But this great satisfaction did nothing to calm his temper.

"Why? Because she lives in your house? Because you were best friends? Because she's your prisoner?" Ginny reminded him a lot of his mother at this moment. With her hands on her hips and fire in her eyes he almost thought she'd whip him over the head with a spoon. Luckily for him there were no spoons lying around in the dressing room.

"No! Because..."

"Because you're in love with her? She's still not yours and she will never be if you don't help her become a human being again!" With that she left him in the room.

She felt a bit bad about herself. That was what made her so angry with Ron, she had to defend her actions to herself as well as to her brother. Hermione's pleading eyes still followed her and made her wonder if she'd done the right thing.

"Hello there, pretty lady." She was really not in the mood for this.

"It's pretty Lady _Malfoy_ to you." She had after years of marriage to one of the most influential wizarding families learned to use it to her advantage. She almost never did, it disgusted her how much a name could mean when it came to power and money, something her family had never had. The elegant man paled a bit. Her husband was rather known for being protective and unwilling to share. For once she was thankful for his stuck-upness.

"S..Sorry, Madam." He hurried down the hall. She rolled her eyes and still fuming, Apparated home.

A/N: So how was your read?


	7. Chapter 7

Two Beds and a Coffee Machine

By

Sannikex

_To__ Louise_

Because you are you and that is all we could ever ask for. Happy Birthday!

**Chapter Seven**

_Welcome to the fallout  
Welcome to resistence  
The tension is here  
Between who you are and you could be  
Between how it is and how it should be_

Switchfoot

She sat staring out in the darkness of the room. The dinner had gone well. She repeated it in her mind, the dinner had gone well. Some of the tension loosened. She had made it. She had actually made it through a whole dinner. Harry and Luna and their charming children had acted very normally. They did not mention Viktor once and her past between Hogwarts and now was not brought up once. It felt good, she had overcome one of her fears, she had beaten Viktor tonight, she'd shown him she was not in his hold anymore. There was a knock on the door.

"Yes?" Ron entered and his prescense seemed very much more _there_ in the cramped space. He ran a hand through his hair, a gesture she remembered from their Hogwarts time. He was nervous or didn't know how to express himself.

"I just wanted to say that I think you did well tonight, Hermione. It was brave of you to face this, with Ginny making you, and all." She could hear that he was not happy with Ginny who had invited Harry's family over to his house.

Why did he talk to her like she was a child? She was thirty for Merlin's sake and here he was, praising her like she'd gotten a high mark on a test.

Why, was it so hard to find common ground to stand on? She wasn't at ease with Hogwarts memories and she shut him out in the Viktor era, she didn't want to talk about the future and the prescrnse just made here feel guilty. The only thing they could discuss was the children.

"Erm, well, goodnight, Hermione." He turned. Sweet Circe, what on earth had possessed him to do this? It was just embarrassing. But he already knew the answer. He wanted to see her. He wanted to see her all the time. It was fascinating how she grew everyday. Small triumphs like taking off her wedding band and lock her door with her wand, that he'd found back at her old house, that helped her back into the person she'd been. Of course she'd never be that person again. He wasn't the same person he'd been at Hogwarts either and Hermione had a long way to go before she'd be at ease with life.

He wanted to see her so he could be there for her. There for her so she would _see_ him. Right, very likely, Ron, she had nine years to _see_ you and she still chose bloody Vicky Krum.

"Ron, wait." He turned back to her and his voice sounded tired and hoarse even to himself.

"Yes?"

"I…Thanks." He nodded and turned again.

She saw him turn and searched for something, anything, to say to make him stay.

"Why aren't you married?" She almost bit her tongue. What kind of question was that? "I…I mean you're so sweet and considerate and…well, most girls would love to be with someone like you…" He didn't turn this time and she wondered if she'd hurt him.

"Well, some don't."

"Oh." So he had someone special whom he couldn't have. The thought disturbed her a bit. "Did she choose…another?"

"Yes, she did."

"She must be stupid. Sorry, but really didn't she see how great you are?" She hated that girl. How could she turn her back on _Ron_? Now he turned.

"I guess that's what love makes you." He smiled sadly. She noted that he didn't disagree with that the girl was stupid. Good. Dumb bint, she didn't deserve him anyway. She nodded.

"I guess. Why did she choose the other?" He looked intently at her.

"I have no idea what she saw in him but I know that maybe I didn't try as hard as he did. I wanted to but I didn't dare. So she chose him."

"That has always been your problem. Your confidence. You're very brave, Ron but you have really bad self-confidence. I was so glad when I heard that you lead the Cannons to victory after victory. I thought, it'll help him." He closed his eyes briefly like something pained him.

"It did. But it was too late. In my mind I thought that maybe if I won she'd see and…well, it was stupid. It was too late."

"It's what love makes you, right? I'm sorry, Ron."

"Me too, Hermione. Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Ron."

He leaned against the wall in the hallway. How could she _not_ see?

She started to undress and realized that she'd had a conversation with Ron without stumbling or becoming nervous once. She also realized that she'd forgotten to ask him what the stupid girl's name was.

"How was school?" Hermione asked as she heard the door open. Vanessa passed through the kitchen.

"Fine." The she disappeared to the tiny room she had in the attic. Ron had insisted she'd not have to share with her brothers. As he put it, 'Hermione, I slept in the attic to not have to be in the same room as the twins or Ginny and I liked it there. Vanessa can sleep one landing above'. Then he'd winked at Vanessa who had nodded solemnly. So she'd agreed.

"Vanessa! Come back I want…" The door slammed shut upstairs. She sighed and wiped her hands to follow her daughter.

"Don't. I'll go. Ask Henry." He stopped her with a hand on her elbow. He held up Rorie and automatically she took him in her arms. He went out of the kitchen.

"So Henry…How was your day?"

"Can I come in, Vanessa?"

"No!" The answer was muffled. The pillow-stage. He entered.

"Let me talk for one minute and if you still don't want me here I'll go, okey?" She didn't look up and he suspected she was hiding tears. He wanted to kick whomever it was who'd made her sad. "I know that starting school is not easy. You should have seen me before Hogwarts, I shared a compartment with Harry and I was so scared that I would mess up. All my brothers had gone there and come home talking about people and places I'd never seen or heard of. I decided that I would do as good as them but it wasn't easy. I remember that when I first realized that the polite boy I shared compartment with was _the_ Harry Potter. My first thought was that my brothers could not beat this. Not a very pretty thought. But then I got to know what a great guy Harry was and that was that." A minute in silence passed.

"And you're point being?" He sat down on the bed beside her.

"I don't know why you're sad but I can guess. Just tell them that your uncle is Harry Potter. People are shallow, it'll help."

"He's not my uncle."

"He's your mother's best friend. Hey, kids are cruel. They've probably told you stuff about your father that is not true that they have heard from their parents and I understand that it makes you sad but I know something. I don't have anything good to say about your father but he did love his children." _I think_…

There was another pause.

"That's not what made me sad."

"No? Do you want to tell me what's really wrong then?" She started to sob.

"I just feel so bad. You should love your father and I really want to but all I can think is why I don't have a father like you! I feel so cruel because he's in jail and I'm happy because of it. I feel horrible because I hate mum for marrying him. Why couldn't she marry you? You were her best friend, right? Then you'd be my father." She continued, a bit out of breath, "The kids in school did go on about my father but when I said I lived here with you they suddenly were all nice… I wish he didn't exist!"

"I totally agree." With a surprised hiccough she looked up.

"But…"

"I'll tell you something, Nessie, that not many people know. You have to promise to not tell anyone, especially not your mother." Vanessa nodded solemnly and sniffled a bit. He breathed deeply. "I wish that your father didn't exist because I was in love with Hermione since my first year at Hogwarts. I didn't know I was then but I've realized it now. I wanted to tell her but I never dared and then your father came along and he told her how much he loved her, everyday. I was unsure and I didn't want to embarrass myself so she ended up marrying Krum. I wish he'd never been born. Then maybe your mother would be mine and you and your siblings as well."

They sat in silence on the bed, leaning against the wall with their arms around their knees.

"Do you think you could love her again? If you got married I'd be yours and so would mum." He laughed mirthlessly.

"Vanessa, I _still_ love your mother." He heard her sharp intake of breath. "But she doesn't love me, Nessie." Vanessa sunk back against the wall.

"Life sucks."

"Sometimes."

A/N: I ADORE reviewers. Just so everyone knows.


	8. Chapter 8

Two Beds and a Coffee Machine

By

Sannikex

_To__ Louise_

Because you are you and that is all we could ever ask for. Happy Birthday!

A/N: Hello! It seems like whatever I do to separate the parts to avoid confusion is deleted by so I am trying yet another way. I am aware of the problem so I will just keep trying. That being said I hope you all will enjoy the next chapter!

**Chapter Eight**

_Still a little bit of your song in my ear  
Still a little bit of your words I long to hear  
You step a little closer  
to me  
So close that I can't see what's going on_

Damien Rice__

"I hate to say I told you so..." He smiled and looked at his sister over his shoulder as he put his robe in the locker.

"No, you don't."

"Fine, I love it, especially when my brothers are concerned." Amused, he turned to her. She was leaning against the wall and he was, as always, a bit taken by how good-looking she was. He hated to admit it but being rich suited her. Deep inside he knew that it wasn't her expensive clothes that made her stunning, it was happiness but that would require bringing Malfoy into his thoughts and he tried to refrain from that so the bugger wouldn't cure severe wounds after the next family dinner. "But I was right, wasn't I? Hmm, hmm?"

"You didn't see her before the dinner, Ginny. She was a wreck." To his embarrassment his voice trembled. He sat down and Ginny grew serious at once. She sat down beside him on the hard bench. "She was shaking and sweating. I don't know what that bastard did to her but..." In a quick move he rose and struck the locker with all his might. He didn't even feel the pain. Ginny circled her arms around him from behind and leaned her forehead against his back.

"You _still_ love her, don't you? You never stopped?" She asked softly and all that could be heard was his ragged breathing. Then he nodded.

"Oh, Ron", she breathed when she felt his body start shaking with sobs. She led him to the bench again and sat down promptly on his lap. "I know" , she murmured over and over and stroke his hair. Slowly he calmed down.

"What is it that you know?"

"Well, if there's someone you know who knows everything about one-sided love it's me. I've loved two men in my life, Harry and Draco. Both had serious emotional problems. Harry didn't see me, and Draco, well, he is and will always be a Slytherin, he wasn't very comfortable with love. I loved him for three years before he admitted that he loved me. So I know the feeling."

"I feel so helpless. She's just so hurt. I could kill him!"

"We all do. I had to watch like a hawk over Draco so he wouldn't. With his reputation he's a bit…vulnerable."

"What do Malfoy care?"

"You know he suspects his father was a bit abusive towards Narcissa at the end." Ron didn't comment and for a while they sat in silence.

"I don't know how to proceed, Ginny. I mean we've never...Our parents..."

"Yeah, the happily ever after incarnated."

"Exactly. It feels like I'm balancing on slack tightrope very far above the ground and if I fall I'll bring people I care about with me."

"You're doing great, Ron. Hermione feels it and I feel it through her. Your patience is just extraordinary. She feels safe with you and she talks about you all the time. It makes me glad to hear so many good things about you. And you know what, if our parents had been in a relationship like Hermione's I think it'd been mum who stood for the violence." Ron snorted and agreed whole-heartedly. Arthur Weasley wouldn't dream about hitting his wife, he was too kind at heart. And, Ron thought, secure in himself and his place in life.

POV

Small triumphs, Hermione thought, were the key to come out of the shell. She would do this today; she would be there for Vanessa no matter how much the prospective of being in a room with lots of other people outside the safe walls of Ron's house scared her. But Vanessa had asked her to be there and she rarely asked for anything so Hermione had locked in her frightened thoughts in the back of her head and given her word to be there. So now she had to go to Vanessa's school where she'd only been once and meet everyone involved in the play the school was setting. With a deep breath she went down the stairs to her daughter.

POV

When they arrived to the school Hermione noticed that most people were so busy that they didn't even send her a second glance. She usually felt like everyone stared at her wherever she went but here it was impossible to even imagine such a thing. Vanessa kept looking around and was in such a sour mood that Hermione was desperate for going home and hide herself under a heap of covers and never come out again.

"Children, it's time!" Vanessa tensed and started to follow her teacher to the backstage.

"Hey, sorry I'm late." Hermione turned.

"Ron?" Vanessa went back.

"You came!"

"Of course I came, Nessie. I said I would. I mean how could I resist when one of the stars of the show invited me?" He didn't mention all the meetings he'd had to cancel or how many people that would be fairly aggressive when he came to work tomorrow. He just handed Vanessa the pink roses he'd bought and when he saw the look in his eyes he swore that whatever happened or did not happen between him and Hermione would not change that he'd stay in touch with this girl.

Hermione just stared as Ron handed her daughter a small bouquet of pink roses. Something in her just twisted and broke free as her daughter threw her arms around the tall man. It resounded in her head, a snap that at the same time filled her heart with hate and love. Hate for the man that had not realized what a small gesture his daughter needed to be happy and love for the man who was almost a stranger who had.

"Vanessa! Come along, it's about to start!"

"I'm coming, Ms. Coleman." She wiped away a traitorous tear and smiled as Ron winked at her.

"You came. To Vanessa's school play." He turned towards her and looked a bit embarrassed.

"Yes, I did."

"You bought her flowers." He ran a hand through his hair.

"Yes, I did."

"You put on a suit." He squirmed.

"Yes, I did." Hermione felt her own tears were coming.

"Why, Ron?" He wrinkled his forehead and briefly she thought that he was going to get creases there.

"Why is it so hard to understand, Hermione? I like your children. Do you think they're so horrible that no one would want to spend time with them?"

"No! No, I just..."

"Don't underestimate your children, Hermione, and don't underestimate yourself." With that he went into the auditorium.

"I think all I underestimated was you, Ron." She murmured, and followed him.

A/N: Okay, I know the separation thingie is not the greatest (if you can see it at all) but if it works I think it's worth it. Reviews are appreciated (all reviewers get free imaginary candy)!


	9. Chapter 9

Two Beds and a Coffee Machine

By

Sannikex

_To__ Louise_

Because you are you and that is all we could ever ask for. Happy Birthday!

A/N: All wonderful reviews brings double update since they made me deliriously happy, imaginary candy to all reviewers!!

**Chapter Nine**

_I dare you to move  
I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor  
I dare you to move  
I dare you to move  
Like today never happened  
Today never happened before_

Switchfoot

The house on Goblin's Road 6 was relieved of the tensions that had been inside its walls very slowly. The new and old inhabitants were easing into habits that suited them all and made them relax.

Hermione went up first. She put on her new dressing gown that she enjoyed immensely for the still new softness of the fabric and went down the stairs. She would put on tea and as the shower started to run over Ron she awoke the kids. Sending Vanessa and Henry to the second bathroom and helping Rorie through his morning rituals. Then she would go down where the children were setting the table and Ron was by the frying pan. She set Rorie in his baby chair that Ron had purchased and brought home making Hermione cry. Then she made the toasts. Everyone sat down almost at the same time. Hermione went through the checklist about homework, daily happenings and whether or not to bring extra rain clothes. Then Ron took Rorie to Mrs. Weasley and Henry and Vanessa to school before going off to work. Hermione did the dishes and then she used to stand in the middle of the kitchen enjoying the feeling that she could do whatever she wanted to do. Some days she read, some days she cleaned, some days she did accounting and recently she'd dared to go out by herself to do grocery shopping. That was one of her favourite pastimes nowadays. She had no bruises to hide and didn't need to hurry so Viktor wouldn't start making things up that she'd probably done when she was outside. She could do everything slowly and imagine that she was normal. She was going to finish her shopping and then she was going home to her wonderful husband and amazing children. More often than not the husband reminded her of Ron.

Shaking her head she went upstairs to change out of her nightclothes. She was just done when a voice called out.

"Hermione! It's Molly!" She tensed. Was everything clean? Had she left anything, were there any traces of breakfast? She'd dusted yesterday...What if she'd missed something? "Rorie and I thought we'd drop by for tea." Molly called and telling herself that she was acting ridiculously Hermione went down. She kept her hands behind her back so she wouldn't see how they shook.

"Mrs. Weasley." However she couldn't do anything about her voice shaking. The plump form she remembered from her younger years turned.

"Hermione, dear!" For a second Hermione thought Mrs. Weasley would start crying.

POV

Molly had to admire her son's patience with the girl but she couldn't stand just sitting around anymore. Hermione's children were lovely and she didn't mind having them around but she wanted to know how the girl herself was. Ron was being sweetly overprotective and Molly was content about her sneaky plan how to check up on the girl. Using Rorie as blackmail wasn't nice but Hermione had been almost as a daughter. Merlin, she wasn't blind and deaf for her sons' feelings however much they wanted to believe that was the case. She'd known when her youngest son fell for the brainy Hermione Granger and she'd watched him not doing anything about it. The girl she'd come to think of as her future daughter-in-law had slipped out of his life and then he'd not spared a second glance for any woman. However much she wanted to just lock both of them up in a closet until something happened it wasn't the right way to do it. Men were probably not a priority for Hermione right now and Ron, well, he would do as he'd always done. Doubt himself. It was an insecurity that had held him in a strong grip since his birth. Being the sixth child wasn't a big deal and Ron had always felt that he couldn't compete against all that his older brothers had achieved. Then he'd befriended Harry Potter the most powerful magician of their time and Hermione Granger, the smartest witch since Lily Evans. It didn't do a lot to your inferiority complexes to have such people as your friends. So Ron had never acted upon his feelings, he'd been too convinced he'd be rejected. When Hermione came into the kitchen Molly asked herself if Hermione would have rejected her son. She doubted it.

POV

Hermione sighed. It was hard to argue with Mrs. Weasley. She just ran over you like a train. Now she'd gotten Hermione to promise she would come to the next family dinner.

"You weren't much help were you?" She said to Rorie who was contently sucking at his fingers on the opposite side of the table.

POV

She was playing with Rorie when the door slammed open.

"Mum! Mum!"

"Here!" She called as the excited shouts from the hall were heard. Then Ron's dark voice telling Henry to slow down and take off his jacket.

"Mum, can we go, please?"

"Go where?" She looked up and saw Ron leaning against the doorframe looking amused. Henry and Vanessa kneeled on either side of her.

"To Ron's game. They're playing tomorrow, the Cannons are playing tomorrow. Can we go, please?"

"Well, I…"

"You'll sit in the top box with the players' family and friends. No one knows you, Hermione." She looked down at the pleading faces of her children.

"I don't know…"

"Please, mum?" Vanessa's pale cheeks were flushed and her eyes sparkled. Henry was breathing heavily and was almost bouncing with excitement. His small features were scrunched up in hope.

"I'd appreciate if you came, you know." Ron said and looked a bit embarrassed. The memory of the exact same face he'd worn when she'd interrogated him about the flowers for Vanessa convinced her.

"Alright. We'll come." From the middle of the victory dance that was executed around her Hermione smiled at Ron.

A/N: Next up, Quidditch game!


	10. Chapter 10

Two Beds and a Coffee Machine

By

Sannikex

_To__ Louise_

Because you are you and that is all we could ever ask for. Happy Birthday!

A/N: For my reviewers, second chapter for today!

**Chapter Ten**

_Welcome to the planet  
Welcome to existence  
Everyone's here   
Everybody's watching you now  
Everybody waits for you now   
What happens next  
I dare you to move_

Switchfoot

Nervously she looked around. It had been hard to decide what to wear. What did you wear when you went to a quidditch game and sat in the celebrity seats? She'd actually asked Ron who'd been no help whatsoever. 'Whatever you like, Hermione'. What was that supposed to mean? Should she wear jogging pants and sweatshirt?

Finally she'd decided on black trousers and white shirt. Vanessa had added a Chudley orange tie. It was almost like school uniform so she felt rather relaxed. Henry was dressed all in orange and had insisted that Ron would turn even his underwear and socks orange. Vanessa wore orange jumper and ribbons in her dark hair. Ron had shrunk one of his T-shirts to fit Rorie. There was no doubt which team they supported when a formal looking witch escorted them to their seats.

They were among the first to arrive but the top box was already half-full. The families of the players' were there as early as the players themselves. With her head bowed Hermione sat beside a woman whose nails were painted a bold red. That was about all she saw of her as she kept her head down.

"You're new here aren't you?" A voice that spoke of money and self-confidence resounded. Hermione shyly met the woman's eyes. They were an icy blue and her features were sharp. The blonde hair was swept back from the stunning face. Hermione nodded. The woman searched her purse and retrieved a package of cigarettes. She lit one and inhaled deeply.

"So, who invited you?" She exhaled the smoke.

"Ronald Weasley." The woman's demeanour changed immediately.

"Oh, Ron!" She lowered her voice, "I thought you were one of the players' wives." She rolled her eyes and nodded towards the occupied seats behind them. "But you're invited by the coach. He and Howard, my husband, get along splendidly. Howard always says that we have Ronald Weasley to thank for all our successes. I have to say that I agree, I mean it's fabulous what he's managed to accomplish, isn't it?" Hermione felt proud of Ron but the feeling of shame overshadowed the feeling, had she ever asked Ron about his work? He went to it every morning and she'd just taken it for granted. He'd gotten his dream job. So she just mumbled in agreement.

"How do you know each other by the way?"

"Oh…we're old friends…" The other woman looked a bit taken aback.

"Just friends? I heard you two lived in his house." Hermione felt her cheeks go red.

"Just friends. I…He's been kind enough to let my children and I stay with him." Merlin, had she compromised his reputation now? She'd have to move, really, she'd been intruding on his privacy far too long anyway.

"So they're your children?" She nodded towards where Vanessa, Henry and Rorie in his sister's arms were standing, a bit too close to the rail for Hermione to feel at ease.

"Yes."

"Lovely. Are you sure you're just friends, darling? He's never invited anyone besides family and the Potters here. Don't be afraid to tell me, what you tell me stays with me." Hermione didn't believe that for one second but she was glad that Ron had thought of her as family.

"I'm sure."

With that all conversation was cut off as the game started. For a short while Hermione forgot all about herself and was into the game. She'd never been very interested in Quidditch but it was different now, this was Ron's team, his work and his victory. When the whistle blew and the Cannons won by 180 points Hermione jumped, screamed and danced just like the people around her. She followed the players' wives down to the pitch and when she found Ron she didn't give it a thought just gave into what seemed so natural all of sudden and hugged him. After her Vanessa and Henry followed suit. Rorie expressed his utter displease from being squashed between Vanessa and Ron.

"That was an amazing game, Ron. You've really made something of this team." She backed and thought she'd travelled back in time. He was blushing violently and clearing his throat. Then she looked down and saw his arms around her children. The sight just filled her heart with some warm liquid and threatened to burst. It shouldn't have been a pleasant sensation but it was.

"Thanks, Hermione. That means a lot to me." _You'll never know how much_... Vanessa's arm around his waist tightened. He looked down at her upturned face. _Nothing escapes you, does it, little girl_...

"Ron, can I touch one of the players' brooms? Please?" Henry inquired with pleading in his voice. He couldn't help smiling. That boy knew exactly which buttons to press.

"Sure thing." He hoisted the boy up on his shoulder and searched out the friendliest player, the Keeper, George Houseman. Houseman had two kids of his own. "Hey, Houseman, can this admirer get a ride?" The man smiled and nodded. Wide-eyed with awe Henry sat in front of the player as he rose fast enough to have Henry squealing but not quite fast enough to put him in any danger.

POV

"Hermione!"

"In here!" Ginny sauntered in. Hermione thought that she took after her husband in a very elegant way.

"Is there something you haven't told me?" Hermione looked up from the book she'd been engrossed in.

"What?" Ginny held up the paper she carried. A picture of her and Ron embracing on the Quidditch pitch the day before covered most of the front page, beneath the headline, '_Love or quaffles in the air_?' She grabbed the paper.

"Merlin! What if Ron sees it? He doesn't want to be associated with this kind of rumour! What have I done?" Ginny kept her mouth wisely shut about that her brother would like very much to be associated with this kind of rumour. Or even more wanted the rumour to be true.

"It's just media, Hermione, Ron's used to it. What I wondered was if there's any truth at all in this statement." Careful, now.

"No! Of course not! Ron couldn't..." Ginny held up a hand.

"Ron couldn't, what? Be in love with you? What about you Hermione? How do you feel?" Hermione got up and started pacing. "I don't know." She looked down on her hands. "I really don't. I know that he's the sweetest man I've ever met and that I care a lot about him." She laughed mirthlessly. "I just can't fall in love. He makes me feel in places I didn't know I still possessed but there is one part that is definitely dead in me and that's my heart." With dry eyes and steady voice she dropped her hands to her sides. Ginny wrinkled her forehead.

"You still love your children. You must have your heart left or you wouldn't feel at all." Hermione's eyes sought for something to rest on.

"I meant that I can't trust anyone enough again to fall in love." Ginny's heart ached for both Hermione and her brother.

"Because of Krum?" Hermione shrugged.

"You're always two parts in a marriage. He had no right to hit me but we both have to be blamed for ruining our relationship. I don't trust myself anymore, how can I trust someone else?" Ginny couldn't fight off her instincts anymore and went over and hugged the almost stranger she'd once considered her closest friend.

"Did you trust Ron before Krum?"

"Of course I did. With my life. He was a bit...well, anyway I never doubted his loyalty..."

"What about your friendship?" Hermione sat down heavily.

"We were best friends. But it wasn't like with Harry. I guess we always knew that he was special. More than being the-boy-who-lived. He was the-boy-who-had-to-save-the-world. I trusted him in a completely different way. Ron...I guess I can admit it now that I had a crush on Ron for a very long time. But I was like a boy to him. Or even worse, agamic. Anyway, not someone you fell in love with. So Viktor and his ever attentive flattering overwhelmed me, ran over me like a train. I saw too late that his feelings for me were rather shallow and based on some hazy daydream of qualities he thought I had after meeting me once when I was fourteen. I forgot about my feelings for Ron, for Harry, for everyone. I forgot myself and how I used to be and I forgot the world. When you forget something that's supposed to grow it dies. Love needs tending, like flowers but I don't have green fingers. They're rather black." She leaned back and rubbed her face. Ginny was a bit taken aback by the long confession.

"Still, I bet there's a seed deep down that's going to bloom in time. But you might need help. As you said, you're always two people who need to tend the flower of love." She smiled at the metaphor and got up. She couldn't do more pushing, Hermione had to some pushing by herself or the whole thing could blow. "Think about it." Quietly, Ginny left and Apparated home.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed your read!


	11. Chapter 11

Two Beds and a Coffee Machine

By

Sannikex

_To__ Louise_

Because you are you and that is all we could ever ask for. Happy Birthday!

A/N: As usual I am humbled by all your nice reviews!

**Chapter Eleven**

_Stones taught me to fly  
Love taught me to cry  
So come __on courage,  
Teach me to be shy  
'Cause it's not hard to fall  
And I don't wanna scare her  
It's not hard to fall  
And I don't wanna lose_

Damien Rice_  
_

She almost stalked down the hallways of her home. Sometimes she still found it unbelievable that all of this belonged to her. Well, to her and Draco. After years of marriage it still amazed her that she could walk into any store, point at anything and get it. Immediately and prettily wrapped.

Respect only lasted so far. The Weasley name meant respect. Money reached further. The Malfoy name meant money and respect, just another kind of respect. A kind that her husband did everything in his might to turn into the kind of respect the Weasley name had. Some reporters actually thought that was why Draco Malfoy had married Ginny Weasley, to get a bit of the Weasley shine on his name. She shrugged. Well, their cynical minds probably couldn't grasp such a word as love. At least no as long as it didn't come with profit. Some long, tear-jerking article about love conquering all that the journalists made up in their money and powerhungry little brains to get people of low-intelligence buy a copy or two of their tabloid. They never realized there were real people and real feelings behind their scoops. They just wrote it that way. Hypocrites.

She opened the door to her husband's office and leaned against the doorpost. She couldn't help smiling as she watched him. He was engulfed in whatever he was doing and hadn't noticed her yet. He also hadn't noticed that he in distraction had pushed a hand through his hair and messed it up, tugged at his tie and opened the top buttons of his shirt.

"Why are people so stupid?" He looked up and met her eyes. With a smile he reserved for privacy he leaned back in his chair and let his eyes travel over her appreciatively. The shiver that usually followed his close study of her anatomy came immediately and she enjoyed it, rode on the little wave of desire just for her own pleasure.

"That, after the meaning of life, is a question I have pondered since childhood without finding an answer to. However I do know the meaning of my life, just not life in general. Who are the stupid people this time? I'll have them killed. They're just spreading bad genes anyway." Ginny laughed and sat down on a corner of his desk.

"I think I want these stupid people to live."

"Oh, well, I guess not everyone can have perfect gene banks like we do. They can spread their stupidity genes. I mean, whom will our children bully if no one stupid is around 'cause no one else actually has perfect genes?" She smacked him and held back the smile that threatened to burst out like laughter.

"You're so repulsive. No, I don't want Ron and Hermione killed, I just want them to admit their feelings for each other and live happily ever after. Maybe we could lock them up in a closet..."

"Mmm...I'll just not comment that. It gives me the creeps."

"But I bet Ron would be the perfect gentleman and just hold her hand. Unlike some people I know."

"What?" He feigned an innocent face. "You didn't want me to just hold your hand anyway."

"No, I didn't want you anywhere near me."

"Too bad I was irresistible." He smirked.

"Bastard." She sunk down onto his lap.

"Wench." He tugged at her hair and made her angle her head. "Much better." Then he sealed her lips with his.

POV

She was shaking badly at the time they arrived at the Burrow and Ron had gotten a tense line around his mouth. He held the door for her and Henry and Vanessa rushed past her inside. She hugged Rorie and Ron helped her to get rid of her cloak. For a moment he let his hand rest on her shoulder. Usually they didn't have any physical contact except for the necessary and when his hand squeezed her shoulder reassuringly she felt a strong need to lean back against him, depend on his strength, just forget responsibility and curl up against him and feel safe. But she couldn't. She had to lead her own life; Ron wouldn't always be there and clear the way. He leaned closer, so close that she could feel his breath on her neck.

"Don't worry, Hermione. We can go home anytime you want. I'll take you home the second you tell me." She swallowed heavily and suddenly she felt very warm, a minute ago she'd been shaking from cold. His hand was warm on her shoulder and she could feel the warmth through the layer of clothes she wore. She didn't want to wash them ever again. His hand had touched these clothes. With a final squeeze he left her and went into the adjoining room. She shook her head to get rid of the silly thoughts. Not wash them? This was just ridiculous. A deep breath later she followed Ron into the room.

As she stepped over the threshold she felt like she'd been knocked to the ground by a wave of memories. All of the familiar smells from the Burrow swept around her like a worn and soft blanket. The buzz of voices died as they realized she was there and a multitude of curious eyes were fastened on her. She felt like a rabbit surrounded by foxes.

"So, Harry, I heard about that new investigation you're leading…" Ron said loudly and looked pointedly at the others. Quickly they started to talk forcedly to each other.

Ginny emerged out of somewhere and put an arm around Hermione's waist.

"There's someone I'd like you to meet." Then she tugged her across to the room and stopped in front of the tall, handsome Draco Malfoy.

"My husband, Draco Malfoy." Hermione got the point. Ginny wanted them to 'start over' and Hermione did her best to think of the blonde man as her friend's husband instead of the disgusting little boy who had tormented her and her friends so tirelessly. It wasn't too hard. Her children had talked about all of the Weasley men with respect and unfailing admiration and they hadn't excluded Malfoy. So she trusted Ginny's and her children's judgement and held out a hand. He accepted it and bowed his head.

"Granger." There was a certain comfort in being called by her maiden name again so she smiled tentatively.

POV

She was exhausted. All the Weasleys were married and names of wives and children were spinning in her head. They had stayed until the rest had started to leave and Hermione found that she'd actually enjoyed herself. She had held a long discussion with Malfoy, of all people, about the Celtic sorcerers' impact on modern spellmaking. And, even more surprising than that, she'd had a good time doing it. Happy with her day she turned out the light and fell asleep.

POV

He opened her door slowly. She usually locked but today she'd left it open, she felt safe again. At least in his home. Feeling like he was doing something extremely forbidden he walked up to her bedside. Hermione wasn't strikingly beautiful like Fleur or as eye-catching as his sister but somehow he appreciated her looks more than any beauty queen's. Just because they were hers. That mass of hair that she tried to tame with a large number of hairpins. He wanted to ask her to leave it down, and spill down her shoulders in silky curls. Like she'd used to wear it. Her skin was pale, had always been, from staying indoors so much. Her forehead, always wrinkled in concentration over some book, she would get creases there. Vanessa did the same. He smiled at the thought. Hermione's daughter reminded him very much of how Hermione herself had been as a girl.

"Know-it-all", he whispered affectionately. She turned and he froze. What would she think if she woke up? But she didn't. She mumbled something and the strap of her nightgown slipped down. He reached out to slip it back up but stopped himself. He had no right to touch her when she was unaware, vulnerably sleeping. His hand fell back. If she'd been yours...He closed his eyes for a brief moment. How long could they keep living in the same house? He loved having her and her children there but for how long before he did something extremely stupid. Like telling her he loved her. All the trust he had built up would go up in flames. The flames of his feelings. Then the flames would die for they would have no fuel. They couldn't feed on Hermione's feelings for she had none but gratefulness towards him. Silent, screaming on the inside, he left the room.

POV

Hermione woke up with a start. Her heavy breathing resounded in the room and she felt her cheeks heat up when she remembered what had woken her up. It had been a very long time since she'd had one of _those_ dreams. It had been a very long time since she'd even thought about sex. With Viktor it had been a nightmare mostly. At least the last three years. But for the last seven months he hadn't touched her. She'd been relieved.

This was different. It had been Ron's hands on her body, Ron's face hovering above her, Ron's voice calling to her. She buried her head in the pillow to hide her burning cheeks from herself. This was idiotic. She couldn't fantasize about Ron. She lived in his house. A traitorous voice in her head whispered, _how convenient_...

She shook her head. Ron didn't want her. He probably had women queuing outside his door, far more attractive, intelligent and sexy women than Hermione Granger Krum. Angry with herself she rose from the bed and adjusted the strap of her nightdress that had slipped down. Having sexual fantasies about Ron was about as idiotic as falling for him. She froze. Falling for him? No, she wasn't. Of course not. It would be totally crazy. Sure she'd had a crush on him for years and she thought that she found more things about him to like every day but she wasn't falling for him. She was not.

"Oh, God."

A/N: Hahaha, we're getting there, sweeties!


	12. Chapter 12

Two Beds and a Coffee Machine

By

Sannikex

_To__ Louise_

Because you are you and that is all we could ever ask for. Happy Birthday!

A/N: Aloha and welcome to the twelfth installation of my little creation!

**Chapter Twelve**

_Maybe redemption has stories to tell  
Maybe forgiveness is right where you fell  
Where can you run to escape from yourself?   
Where you gonna go?  
Where you gonna go?  
Salvation is here_

//Switchfoot

Hermione almost dropped her cup of tea when he entered the kitchen. She was sure he could see it on her, see the dream she'd had about him written all over her burning face. But he didn't look at her.

"Goodmorning." He mumbled and sat down. Hermione murmured in response and concentrated on getting Rorie his breakfast inside instead of outside and on the floor. Vanessa looked between them with her forehead wrinkled in worry. The tense breakfast was finished and Ron, Henry and Vanessa left. Rorie was going to stay with his mother. A Side-Along Apparition the three of them stood outside the school. With a hurried 'bye' Henry ran off.

"Did you hit her?" Vanessa's voice was hard and cold and sounded strange coming from a nine-year-old.

"What?" Ron almost lost his footing as he looked down at the girl.

"You came down looking embarrassed, you didn't talk to her, and she wouldn't look at you. Did you hit her?"

"Of course not! I love your mother." Vanessa's features were grim.

"So did my father." He ran a hand through his hair and let out an exasperated breath.

"I...Your father...I don't know how to say this. Your father didn't love Hermione the right way. Love is not supposed to be like that, you have to understand that. You have to understand that I would never do anything to hurt her. Never." He saw the doubt in her eyes and cursed Viktor Krum to a fate worse than hell. Vanessa had probably heard these kinds of pledges many times before. "What can I do to make you believe that I would never raise a hand against your mother?"

"Tell her you love her." Before he had a chance to reply she ran into the school.

"Blimey."

POV

"Hey." Harry sat down beside him in the small booth and gestured to the bartender that he'd have whatever Ron was drinking. They sat in silence for a moment and Ron contemplated the wonder of friendship. He'd sent Harry an owl about twenty minutes ago that he wanted to see him and now here he was, leaving work without a second thought because Ron had asked him to.

"Thanks for coming." Harry shrugged 'no big deal'. "It's just...I can't. I love her and there is nothing I can do. If I breathe a word about it she's going to lock up. I don't think I could stand losing her again." His friend simply sat, knowing Ron would get around to the point eventually. "Yesterday...I went into her room when she was sleeping..." He swallowed and searched for something to fasten his eyes on. Harry leaned forward. "I didn't touch her. But I realized how much I want to. Need to. And I can't." He looked up. "I don't know what to do. All I want to do is protect her...but how can I protect her against myself?"

POV

Harry wasn't very fond of the Malfoy mansion. It was grand and splashy and just oozed of money. He had never thought of his own money as something very valuable and the flashiness of this house...no palace, suited him badly. But, he thought as Ginny flowed down the stairs towards him, it suited some perfectly. He had to admit that the mansion was beautiful and Ginny had turned it from museum to a home, it was just slightly unnerving to be inside a house you could get lost in and not be found for days.

"Harry! How wonderful to see you." After a welcome hug she stepped back. "So, what is it that bothers you?" He smiled faintly; she'd always been able to read him. Just like Luna.

"It's about Ron and Hermione." Her brown eyes were immediately filled with concern.

"Has something happened to them?"

"No, no. I just talked to Ron...I'm not supposed to say this but...Well, it's pretty obvious anyway...He's still in love with Hermione."

"I know. He never stopped. He's told me that." Harry ran a hand through his hair.

"Yes...but it seems like it's starting to wear on him to not be able to...even try to make her love him. He's afraid to scare her away and locks it up and I...it hurts me to see him like this, Ginny. So I came to ask you, how much do you think Hermione can take right now? Is she ready to see something except for a chaperon in Ron?" Ginny sighed and went over to a window. Leaning her forehead against the glass she stared out on the grounds of the estate.

"I don't know. I talked to her a while back and she said that she didn't trust herself enough to fall in love. I have no idea what would happen if Ron started to push. I do know that the worst thing that could happen would be if she lost the trust she has in him. I don't want to see either of them hurting." He walked up beside her.

"Me neither."

"Time?"

"I'm afraid so."

POV

The library. Her church. A sanctuary of facts, and facts was something she trusted. She breathed in the familiar smell of books. There were billions of pages in this building, just waiting to be read, waiting to spread their knowledge to someone. There wasn't a book where you didn't learn anything. It was too long since she had learned anything. It was Ron who had told her over breakfast about the new library in Diagon Alley, hinted that she should take a look. He had been right, too. She really liked this place. It was easy to find what you were looking for and it wasn't crammed. Content with just walking around, she touched the spines of the books, running her hand along the miles of different stories. She smiled to herself. He had been so right. He knew her so well. She shook her head in irritation when she realized she'd been caressing the spine of a well-worn encyclopaedia. To distract herself she pulled it out and sunk down in an armchair. It was a heavy tome about famous inventions from 1350 to 1450. With every word that passed through her brain more information she'd forgotten that she knew came back and thoughts linked themselves into a long chain of facts with a speed that made her forget the time, the surroundings, herself. All that mattered was the next piece of information to fit into the huge puzzle of knowledge in her head.

"I thought I'd find you here." Disoriented she looked up at Ron. He felt a stab in his heart when he recognized the look in her eyes. She looked exactly like she had back at Hogwarts when she'd been concentrating for a long time. Slightly dazed and with a small light flickering in her eyes. She'd gotten to something she hadn't known before. It didn't matter how dull, to Hermione all facts were essential; they meant knowing, stable ground.

"Ron! Why aren't you at work?" A lopsided smile flashed.

"Well, we usually go home when our shifts are over and then when I didn't find you at home I guessed you were here." He didn't mention the panic he'd felt when he'd stepped in and found that she wasn't there.

"Is it after six?" Amused, that even after such a shock she whispered to not disturb the peace of the library, he nodded. "Oh. I guess I lost track of time."

"I guess you did. I left the kids with mum." He pulled up a chair to her tiny table that seemed to groan under the weight of all the heavy tomes Hermione had stacked upon it. "I need to talk to you, Hermione." Suddenly he seemed nervous and she felt the panic rise inside her like bile in her throat. He was going to ask her to leave. Politely of course but he needed his privacy, the privacy that she and her children had invaded for too long.

"I know what you're going to say. Don't. I understand." She blurted out. He looked up from the edge of the table.

"You do?" Hermione brought up the last pieces of her Gryffindor courage.

"Yes, of course. We'll leave as soon as possible." He looked confused.

"Leave? Where?" She started to collect the books.

"I don't know. Don't worry, we'll figure something out. The important thing is that we leave immediately. I'm so sorry, we've stayed too long." She flicked her wand and the books floated back to the shelves and slid into their original positions. Then she rose and left him sitting dumbstruck in the "Medieval Engineering" aisle.

POV

He didn't move. He couldn't. He'd lost her. Again. And this time he couldn't blame the fact that she was unaware of his feelings. This time she was aware and she was running because of them. Running because she didn't feel like he. Not the slightest bit. He'd though that nothing could hurt like the day when she'd announced that she was marrying Krum. He'd been wrong. That day his heart had shattered in a million fine pieces and then bled, silently. This time it was screaming. It had been wrung out like a wet cloth, with his feelings bleeding out, dripping like burning acid on all the dreams he'd spun. Dreams and hopes of a life with Hermione. A life with her and her children as a family, his family. With every drop another dream burst into flame. Stupid, stupid, stupid. He leaned his head back against the back of the chair. Staring up at the ceiling far above he watched the dreams die.

A/N: So….How do you like it:D


	13. Chapter 13

Two Beds and a Coffee Machine

By

Sannikex

_To__ Louise_

Because you are you and that is all we could ever ask for. Happy Birthday!

A/N: So, because of a massive response of threats and praise I update really quickly! Welcome to the last chapter before the epilogue!

**Chapter Thirteen **

_Turning circles and time again  
__It cut like a knife oh now  
If you love me, got to know for sure  
Cause it takes something more this time  
Than sweet, sweet lies  
Before I open up my arms and fall  
Losing all control_

// David Grey_  
_

Hermione burst through the door at Goblin's Road 6. She had yet to let her tears fall. She took a calming breath. Soon, she soothed herself, soon she'd let herself cry. But not yet, not as long as the children could hear.

"Go pack your things." She hoisted Rorie higher on her hip. Both Henry and Vanessa stayed put.

"Why?" Vanessa asked.

"Because we're leaving. C'mon!"

"Is Dad coming?" Henry asked and shifted closer to her.

"No. But we've stayed here too long. Go get your stuff, honey." Slowly Henry went into the guest room he shared with Rorie. "Vanessa, you too." Hermione started up the stairs. Vanessa didn't move.

"No."

"Vanessa Jane Krum, do as I say, right now! We don't have time for this!"

"Why not? Why are we leaving?" Hermione sighed. She would have to explain or Vanessa wouldn't budge. She was stubborn as a mule and her recent experiences with the Weasleys hadn't exactly helped. She went back down the stairs and crouched in front of her daughter. With the hand that was not supporting Rorie she took Vanessa's hand.

"You know how you want to have your door closed...to have your privacy, yes? Well, adults want privacy too and when we're living here Ron can't have his privacy. Since we've stayed here so long now he really misses it. So we're leaving." Vanessa's forehead was wrinkled.

"Did he ask us to leave?"

"Well, you see..." She sighed. "Yes, he did. But he's been so nice to let us stay for so long. I didn't plan for us to stay here for so long." She rose and caressed her daughter's hair. "Go pack your things now."

"Wait. Mum, did Ron _ask_ for us to leave?" Hermione who had started up the stairs again couldn't stop the sigh that escaped her.

"Yes, he did. He came to the library and said that he wanted to tell me something and of course I knew what he wanted to say."

Everything inside Vanessa lit up. He'd actually gone to the library to tell mum that he was in love with her. Because she'd asked him to. It was then Vanessa realized how much she loved Ron Weasley. At the same time she realized that he was the only father she'd ever want. She also realized that he was slipping away.

"Mum! We have to find him! Now!"

"Vanessa, I know you like Ron but he is a grown-up man and he doesn't need to have all of us everywhere he turns. This is his house."

"Yes, yes, but we have to find him! _He wasn't going to tell us to_ _leave_! If you'd just let him explain..."

"Vanessa, I'm really getting tired of this discussion! Go to your room, right now and get your things!"

Tears rose in her daughter's dark eyes.

"He was going to tell you he loves you!" She stomped her foot. In absolute silence mother and daughter stared at each other.

"I beg your pardon?"

"He _loves_ you and I wasn't supposed to tell you 'cause it's a secret but you're not _listening_!" Sullenly she stared at the wallpaper's small flower pattern. Hermione woke from her paralysis.

"Ron loves me as a friend and friends don't live on each other without giving back."

"He loves you, mum! Why can't you just love him back? What's wrong with him?" The tears started falling, slowly, then faster.

"There's nothing wrong with him! I just...I thought he loved me once but he didn't. I don't want to go through all that again. Let's go."

"Weasley. Wallowing in self-pity already, I see." Malfoy's voice was almost amused.

"Go away, Malfoy. I'm not in the mood." He didn't turn to look at his brother-in-law, he kept his eyes on the high ceiling.

"I will, and you'll come with me."

"Why would I go anywhere with you?"

"Let me see...Because my wife will have both our heads if we don't go where I'm taking you and because you'll have a chance to avoid self-pitying for the rest of your life. Both aspects make your hopefully continued life more pleasant."

"Like you'd do anything to make my life more pleasant." Ron snorted. There was a deep sigh behind him.

"Well, I kind of know what it's like to loose in love." Ron straightened.

"What do you mean loose? You've won the best of them all and if you can't see it..."

"Easy, easy, Weasley. I know what I have now. But do you think we had an easy path to get here? A Malfoy and a Weasley? The prospect of loosing her was _always_ hovering above my head. Merlin, I still have nightmares about it. That's why I'm doing this. And, of course, because Ginny would eat me alive and feed the leftovers to the children if I didn't." Then he put a hand on Ron's shoulder and did a Side-Along-Apparition.

They landed somewhere dark and Ron heard Malfoy's voice to his left.

"Bye." Then a pop. He was gone.

Almost immediately after another pop was heard then Ginny's 'bye' and a pop.

"Hello?" He said tentatively.

"Ron?"

"Hermione? What are you doing here?"

"I don't know, really. Where are we?"

"No idea. Ginny brought you here?"

"Yes...And you?"

"Malfoy."

"Ah."

"I know that tone, Hermione. You know something."

"Yes, well, I think we are at Malfoy Manor. The only people who can Apparate in or out is the Malfoys."

"So basically..."

"...we're stuck in here. Wherever 'here' is." Feeling a bit stupid for not having thought of it earlier, Ron waved his wand and made the curtains open themselves. They stood, facing each other in what looked like a ball room. The ceiling was gilded and huge mirrors lined the wall. At the far end were glass doors leading out on a terrace. The sun was setting and the last rays were illuminating the room, luring a golden gleam out of Hermione's curls.

"So…" He ran a hand through his hair, a gesture she knew as well as her children's eyes. "I don't really know what to say." His shoulders were slumped, his hair messy and his eyes dull. He looked miserable. Was it possible that he…he didn't want her to leave?

"Ron…When I was at home to pack…" She didn't notice that she'd used the word home. But he did. "Vanessa…she…told me something." He didn't react in any way. No denial, no professing of undying love. She wrung her hands and prayed for courage. "Ron, do you want me to leave? Was that what you were going to ask me?" Neither looked at the other. The silence stretched, as long as the life she could imagine the life ahead of her without him would be. Then he answered.

"No." The word was barely audible. "I was going to ask you to stay. Forever. Or ask you to go on a date with me. I hadn't quite decided." The meaning of his words trickled into her head slowly, like warm liquid that filled her up, warmed her and lit her. He wanted her to stay. He wanted her.

"Then ask me." He turned his head sharply and his eyes took on an almost magnetic colour.

"Hermione…Will you go on a date with me?" A smile that cut through all his fears was answer enough. He stepped closer and she mimicked the move. He bent down, his arms wound around her waist. The moment their lips met the room seemed to spin and her whole body softened. It was like in the books. The books she'd read for pure pleasure, the ones about fake people and fake things in fake worlds. The fireworks, the weak knees, the thudding heart. Something so wonderful could only be faked. Or extremely true. All fiction had to be based on facts, or they wouldn't be believable.

"Stop." He straightened.

"Was that too fast? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…"

"Shh! Ask me the other question." His brow wrinkled. Then his arms tightened around her again.

"Hermione, will you and the children stay with me? Forever?"

"Yes. I don't think the children will stay forever. But I will, Ronald Weasley." He smiled.

"I love you, you know that?"

"I love you too." It wasn't hard to say it. It didn't hurt, no alarm bells resounded in her head. After all, she wasn't falling for him. She was flying.

A/N: I hope you liked it! Stay tuned for the epilogue!


	14. Chapter 14

Two Beds and a Coffee Machine

By

Sannikex

_To__ Louise_

Because you are you and that is all we could ever ask for. Happy Birthday!

A/N: Here it is, the ending, the absolute last piece of this story. I want to thank everyone who has reviewed and supported this fic, you're all wonderful and I hope you will enjoy this!

**Epilogue**

_I give you my destiny.   
I'm giving you all of me.  
I want your symphony, singing in all that I am  
At the top of my lungs, I'm givi__ng it back.  
So I lay my head back down.  
And I lift my hands and pray  
To be only yours, I pray, to be only yours  
I pray, to be only yours  
I know now you're my only hope._

"You look beautiful, Hermione." Ginny stepped back with a content smile. "Ron is going to be speechless." She rubbed her rounded belly and nodded in agreement to her own words.

"Thanks, Ginny." She couldn't believe that she saw herself in a white gown for the second time in her life. Only this time she knew that she was going to be happy for the rest of her life. She sighed over the beautiful dress. It had taken two days of roaming the shops of Britain, wizard and muggle, to find it. Tirelessly Ginny had followed her, agreeing with Hermione that it had to be just _right_.

"Oh, Ginny I owe you so much." She felt the tears rise in her eyes. "You took me shopping, you were there, you helped me and Ron…"

"Merlin, Hermione don't make me start. With my hormones I'll never quit. Then you'll have a fat, crying bridesmaid. We don't want that." Hermione sniffled.

"You're not fat. You look beautiful. When it's my turn I hope I'll look like you."

"Your turn? Hermione…are you? Are you pregnant?" With the tears rolling down her cheeks Hermione nodded.

"Alright, that's it. I'm going to cry, for a very long time. I'm so happy for you, and for Ron…Ron is going to be ecstatic!" With a tearful laugh the two women embraced.

"It's not that bad, you know. You just stand there, then you say 'I do' and you walk out. Very simple." Harry couldn't resist teasing his friend.

"What if she changes her mind? What if it all reminds her of Krum and she leaves?"

"Ron, she loves you. I bet the bastard is the last thing on her mind right now."

"You think so?"

"I know so." There was a knock on the door.

"Come in!" Luna poked her head in.

"Ron, Vanessa wants to speak with you. Alone."

"See you out there, buddy." Harry clapped his friend's shoulder and followed his wife through the door. Vanessa entered, dressed in pale pink with her long hair in pink ribbons.

"Hey there, beautiful." Her smile was unguarded and her dimples flashed shyly.

"Hi. You look pretty too."

"Why, thank you." Her face sobered.

"I wanted to ask you a question."

"Sure, princess." Her dark eyes were fasted on her pink Mary Janes.

"Now that you're marrying Mum and we're getting your name…will you be our Dad? For real?"

He hadn't thought he could love this girl more than he already did. But it was possible.

"If you want me, Nessie." He opened his arms and she rushed into his embrace.

"You're always going to be my Dad." He breathed in the sweet scent of her hair.

"Always, Nessie."

"Hermione Granger Weasley. I like the sound of that. Mrs Ronald Weasley. Like that too. It's got a nice ring to it. Pun intended." Hermione laughed. They were lying in the enormous bride bed the morning after the wedding. The silk sheets were rumpled and Hermione was aware of that her hair was a mess. But it didn't matter. Not now.

"God, that was so not funny." He nuzzled her neck.

"And still you laugh. It's because I'm so extremely charming."

"Of course. That and because I'm so happy. You finally got around marrying me."

"Finally, yes. Hermione, there's something I've been meaning to ask you." He rose on his elbow and tucked her hair behind her ear. "Do you think…Would you consider…want to have…another child?" His eyes were worried and she smiled in the way that always made him feel like he owned the world.

"Of course I want to have your children, Ron." He sealed her smile with his.

"How soon? Like now? Could we make a baby now?" He murmured between the kisses.

"We could. But it would be kind of useless." He stopped and lifted himself.

"What?"

"Because we've already made one." The meaning dawned on him and when she saw the shift in his eyes she knew that whoever had said that blue was a cold colour was wrong.

A/N: I know it's mushy but people, they lived happily ever after.


End file.
